The World has a New Goal of Having Zero Net Climate Pollution by the end of the Century

The UN recently ratified the Paris Agreement into national law with a majority of countries backing it. The agreement gives the world a goal of having no carbon emissions by 2100. This ensures that we all have a common goal to try and save the planet. A big weakness to this agreement is that it requires voluntary pollution cuts and can't force any single country to reduce carbon emissions by any amount. Luckily the U.S. is in on this agreement, and it would take several years for us to back out.

"Here's why: As of Friday, the Paris Agreement -- which calls for this zeroing-out of net carbon pollution by the end of the century -- had been ratified by 75 parties, including China, the United States and India, the top three polluters. Those 75 parties represent 58.85% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the World Resources Institute. Both of those numbers are critical because the Paris Agreement "comes into force" -- basically, becomes international law -- 30 days after at least 55 countries representing at least 55% of emissions have ratified it."

"The true strength of the Paris Agreement, in my view, is that it sets a tangible goal for climate policy: Limit warming "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, which is measured as a temperature increase since the industrial revolution.

And underlying that goal: Eliminate all net carbon pollution by 2100 ... A weakness: The agreement relies on voluntary pollution-reduction pledges from its members. And if you add all of those up, as they stand, we can expect to warm the atmosphere by 2.7 degrees Celsius -- an unacceptable amount.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/opinions/sutter-paris-agreement-ratification/index.html