According to the EU climate service, for the first time global warming has exceeded 1.5 °C for an entire year. Maintaining long-term keeping temperatures below this level is considered crucial if the most devastating impacts of climate change are to be avoided.

What is the Paris Agreement?

In 2015, world leaders pledged to try to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C.

Almost all the nations of the world - for the first time - have agreed to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

The Paris Agreement, which was adopted on December 12, 2015 in the capital of France by 194 parties (193 countries plus the EU), entered into force on November 4, 2016.

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What did the Paris Agreement say?

The agreement contains a series of commitments:

• "Continue efforts" to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 °C and keep them "well below" 2.0°C above those recorded in pre-industrial times
• Limit greenhouse gas emissions from human activity to the same level that can be naturally absorbed by trees, soil and oceans – known as net zero – between 2050 and 2100
• Each country sets its own emission reduction targets, which are reviewed every five years with a target raise ambitions
• Richer countries will help poorer nations by providing funds known as climate financing , to adapt to climate change and transition to renewable energy