Paris Climate Agreement

The Paris Agreement is the first truly global commitment to fight the climate crisis. In 2015, 195 countries and the European Union signed on to a single, sweeping agreement that aims to keep global warming to well below 2°C (3.6°F)—and make every effort to go above 1.5°C (2.7°F).

The landmark agreement succeeded where past attempts failed because it allowed each country to set its own emission reduction targets and adopt its own strategies for reaching them. In addition, nations—inspired by the actions of local and regional governments, businesses, and others—came to recognize that fighting climate change brings significant socio-economic benefits.

National governments cannot meet this challenge alone. Fortunately, the Paris Agreement explicitly recognizes the role of local governments, businesses, investors, civil society, unions, faith, and academic institutions as critical to meeting the 1.5 °C goal.

Human-caused global warming will impact people, wildlife, and habitats everywhere. We need to come together and immediately and aggressively cut emissions to save the Earth as we know it. Recent reports from international climate scientists and the US federal government have underscored the severe risks of inaction. The difference between blowing past 1.5°C (2.7°F) of warming and reaching or exceeding 2°C (3.6°F) is stark; the risk of heatwaves, floods, ice-free Arctic summers, and habitat loss, and more increase every moment we don’t act.

Stopping the climate crisis is critical to our collective wellbeing, but no single country can stop the damage alone. The Paris Agreement is unprecedented in the near unanimity of nations it brought together on this issue and is the best way to secure the global cooperation needed to address the climate crisis.

The United States was instrumental in the design and negotiation of the Paris Agreement and signed on to it in 2015. As a party to the agreement, the US submitted a pledge to cut emissions by 26%-28% below its 2005 levels by 2025. In 2017, the federal government announced its intent to withdraw itself from the agreement after a new administration took office and on Nov. 4, 2020, the United States became the only nation to withdraw, and the only nation not a party to the agreement. However, on the first day of his new administration, President Biden issued an Executive Order to rejoin the agreement and committed to re-establishing the country as a global leader in the efforts to address the climate crisis.

Over the past four years, more than 4,000 leaders from America’s cities, states, tribes, businesses, colleges, and universities have stood up to say they will continue to support climate action to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement as part of the We Are Still In movement. These leaders have crossed cultural, political, economic, and social divides to take on the challenge of the climate crisis.

These leaders in the United States could achieve up to 37% emissions reductions below 2005 levels by 2030 with significantly expanded action and 49% emissions reductions below 2005 levels by 2030 with aggressive federal re-engagement starting in 2021.

With support from WWF and over two dozen other organizations, We Are Still In was welcomed by other countries and applauded by everyday Americans eager to show the world that US leadership on climate change extends well beyond the executive branch of the federal government.

This type of coalition across sectors, partisan lines, and even faiths was once unprecedented, it is now a model that drives nations toward more ambitious climate action around the world. The Alliances for Climate Action is a global network of coalitions now spanning five continents. They are the new faces of climate leadership around the world and are speeding up the planning and implementation of critical action on climate.

This coalition is changing to meet the new challenge today and with the Biden administration entering office, these leaders have come together once again to say now, America Is All In.

Coalitions that span sectors, partisan lines, and even faiths were once unprecedented, it is now a model that drives nations toward more ambitious climate action around the world. They are not only needed in the United States, but everywhere and The Alliances for Climate Action is a global network of coalitions now spanning five continents. They are the new faces of climate leadership around the world and are speeding up the planning and implementation of critical action on climate both in coordination with their respective governments and within their own communities.

Countries have yet to finalize the rules of how the Paris Agreement will operate going forward and COP26, scheduled to take place in November 2021 in the United Kingdom, will allow countries to complete that job. WWF is working with American leaders committed to addressing the climate crisis to show at COP26 that the United States will do its part.