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human
ELI5: The "Paris Agreement" on climate change

What is this?

What countries participated?

What agreements were made?

How will this effect Climate Change?
gpt
> What is this?

A agreement to collectively take action against human-caused climate change and reduce the negative impacts of global warming and climate change in future years.

> What countries participated?

Nearly every country, 196 to be exact. The largest agreement ever of its kind.

> What agreements were made?

A commitment to limit global temperature rise well below 2°C (relative to pre-industrial levels), with countries also agreeing to try and limit the rise to 1.5°C. For reference, it is thought that any rise in temperature beyond 2°C may have catastrophic climate effects and very serious consequences for many countries down the road.

The agreement also involves helping poorer / less developed nations combat climate change by providing these countries 100 Billion dollars of funding each year to help with the development of sustainable and renewable energy and greener industrial practices in these regions.

As part of the agreement, countries will also have to be more transparent with their greenhouse gas reduction targets and their performance (whether they are actually meeting these targets).

The ideal is to be carbon-neutral by 2050 (where humans aren't adding any more greenhouse gasses than trees etc. can naturally absorb)... but unless we dramatically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, this may be a tough target to reach.

> How will this effect Climate Change?

Hopefully it will prevent catastrophic climate disasters in the future (e.g. 2050 onward), and perhaps even have a modest impact on reducing extreme climate/weather phenomena in the short-term as well.