As we eagerly await the outcome of COP28 later this week, many will be taking stock of the targets set in the Paris Agreement back in 2015 when 196 parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) signed a legally binding international treaty on climate change.

Its overarching goal was to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”

Despite the explosion of clean energy during the past decade, global warming has cruised through 1.5°C and looks set to continue increasing, unless there are drastic breakthroughs in the very near future.

While the annual UN Climate Change Conferences serve a critical role on the path towards climate action by setting real, meaningful, legally binding targets, as well as raising awareness on a global scale, it is questionable if everyday people on the ground really understand the urgency of the task ahead.

Read on more from National Geographic here.