Beyond Paris: emergency imperatives for global policy and local action

New article publication
SPRINGER NATURE
Sustainable Earth Reviews,Vol. 8, article number 2, (2025)

by Prof. Peter Droege
International climate negotiations have not achieved their objectives of halting or even slowing global heating. Current developments in deglaciation, temperature rise and ocean acidification exceed the projected trajectories, taking much of the scientific community by surprise. The policy and action frameworks established to confront the challenge do not match its enormity, nor the speed in which it unfolds.

It is time to recognize that the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement aim of limiting heating by the year 2100 to 2.0, and ideally 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperature levels cannot be met under current dynamics. Global temperatures have passed the 1.5 °C threshold in 2023—and continue beyond it since, at an accelerating rate, and without significantly effective corrective action. This article outlines reasons for this, and ten key policy directions for moving forward. These are founded on the recognition that not individual, narrowly conceived efforts promise success, but only a combination of mutually reinforcing measures can help the recovery of a healthy biosphere. It promises to halt further decline and arrive at climate stabilization. Only a healthy biosphere is capable of stabilizing the global climate. All we can do—and everything we must do—is assist the process of regenerating and safeguarding this capacity.