It’s been a dangerous decade since the Paris Climate Agreement, but there’s still reason for hope

In an aerial view, sunset glow lights up wind turbines and rows of solar panels at a wind farm in Qingyang, Gansu Province of China, on October 28, 2025. Chen Kun/VCG/Getty Images

A decade ago, the world got together and decided to fix the climate crisis by adopting the Paris Agreement.

I remember it like yesterday. This was December 2015 at the UN climate talks in Paris. I was standing in front of a CNN camera as the news came through an earpiece: Nearly every country on Earth agrees to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 — holding warming short of catastrophic levels. A hilariously on-the-nose green gavel hit a desk. The convention center erupted in applause. Diplomats wept and hugged. Even Al Gore managed to not look all that wooden.

My column the next morning trumpeted this headline