World News for Students of English

16-12-2020 07:00

Five years ago, the world reached a historic deal with 195 countries signing the Paris Climate Agreement.

For the first time, there was a global agreement that truly addressed the importance of climate change. However, the agreement was deemed weak because it was all voluntary. If a country set a goal and didn’t meet it, there was no punishment. If a country left the agreement, no one could stop the country from leaving.

However, the agreement’s weakness is also its strength. It was attractive to so many different parts of the economy that hundreds of companies are going to zero out emissions by 2050.

In the last 18 months, seven of the ten largest economies in the world have set goals to reach net zero emissions. Acting on climate change isn’t only morally right, it’s also the financially wise choice as investors and businesses focus on renewable energy sources and green technologies.

Difficult words: deem (to consider), voluntary (done without being influenced or forced into it), zero out (to reduce the amount of something to zero), net (the total).

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