Ten years of the Paris Agreement: Has the world kept its climate promises?

But emissions remain near record highs, temperatures keep climbing and countries are still far from the cuts needed to keep a 1.5C limit within reach.In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera looks at what the Paris Agreement set out to do, how far global temperatures have risen since and which countries are driving emissions.The Paris Agreement is a legally binding climate treaty adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations climate….

It entered into force on November 4, 2016.The United States, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after China, has joined and left the agreement twice.

President Donald Trump ordered both withdrawals.

The first took effect in November 2020, and President Joe Biden rejoined in February 2021.

The US left again in January this year, 12 months after Trump ordered its exit for a second time.Today, 194 parties, 193 countries and the European Union, belong to the agreement.Rather than imposing the same cuts on everyone, the agreement asks each government to set its own targets through nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, outlining how it will cut emissions and adapt to climate change.Countries submit a new, more ambitious….

The agreement also covers reporting, climate finance and support for developing countries.The agreement does not force countries to meet their targets.

It relies on transparency and international pressure to raise ambition.Temperatures have kept rising since the deal was adopted.In 2024, the planet was more than 1.5C warmer than preindustrial levels across a full calendar year for the first time.The past three years, 2023 to 2025, were the hottest on record and the first three-year period to average more than 1.5C of warming.The long-term warming average now stands at about 1.4C, and….

According to the Climate Action Tracker, that projection has since fallen to about 2.6C as countries adopted climate policies and clean energy expanded.Progress has stalled since 2021, however, and current policies still point to far more warming than the agreement promised.Carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming, comes mostly from burning coal, oil and natural gas while deforestation removes trees that once absorbed it.China, the US and India now produce….

China alone emits more than the US, India, Russia and Japan combined although the US has released the most carbon emissions historically.Investments in clean energy are now almost double those in fossil fuels, but emission cuts have been too slow to keep 1.5C within reach.The graphic below ranks the biggest emitters in 2024 and shows how their emissions have changed since the agreement took effect in 2016.China remains by far….

Indonesia has climbed into the top 10, replacing Canada.Germany, Japan and the US have cut their emissions, largely by replacing coal with renewables and gas.

But growth elsewhere has outweighed those cuts, and global emissions are 9 percent higher than in 2016.

Nearly 200 countries pledged to limit warming to 1.5C.

We look at who has delivered and who has fallen short.