The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2015. It covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. It was signed at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
193 members of the UNFCCC are parties to the agreement. The only major emitter that hasn’t ratified the agreement is Iran with 1.1% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. The other three countries that haven’t ratified it yet are Eritrea, Libya and Yemen.
The Paris Agreement's long-term temperature goal is to hold the increase in mean global temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Achieving the latter would substantially reduce the negative effects of climate change.
Emissions should be reduced as soon as possible and reach net-zero by 2050. To stay below 1.5°C of global warming, emissions need to be cut by roughly 50% by 2030.
The Agreement also aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.