The Paris Agreement, easily the most important climate change-related accord of the century, is thisclose to full ratification. At the UN general assembly today, 31 countries ratified the accord, joining the 29 nations who ratified it previously—these countries put out 48 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and the agreement needs 55 percent of emissions represented to go into effect. So, we're close! But we're also probably still screwed.
Brazil, Mexico, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Albania, Iceland, Honduras, Singapore and Thailand were among the countries to newly ratify, joining heavy hitters China and the United States, among others. The accord only needs 7 percent more of the world's emissions to fully ratify, and a number of nations—including Australia, Argentina, Canada and the United Kingdom—have agreed to ratify by the end of the year, which would push the agreement over the edge.
Once the 60 percent threshhold is crossed, the very complicated agreement kicks into gear—each individual country will have to contribute financially to keep the global average temperature from rising, to help adapt to changes brought on by global warming, and to lowering greenhouse gas emissions overall. It's not entirely clear how or whether the agreement will really help, but it's something, and at this point the agreement's gone so far even Nightmare President Trump can't derail it.
Still, it might be too late. 2016 is shaping up to be the hottest year ever recorded on Earth, which is disturbing enough on its own, but it's following a trend. Each climate change study released seems more terrifying than the last, and many scientists seem to agree we've reached a point of no return. The Paris agreement might be a big step, but it would have done a lot more good 50 years ago than it'll do today.
President Obama, who used his last address as president at the U.N. General Assembly to call for "bold" action on climate change, just tweeted this powerful new video. Send it to the climate change denier in your life:
Oh well, at least there won't be any men on Mars.
