A reflection on progress, promise and the path ahead: A decade on from the Paris Agreement

It's been 10 years since the Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 governments at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. I remember exactly where I was, reading the words that sparked the first collective commitment to achieving net zero emissions. 

My colleagues were on the ground in Paris and I was at home with my then three-year-old daughter. My overarching feeling was one of relief – relief that this agreement had the potential to protect the planet her generation would be inheriting. 

This moment marked a major turning point. The world finally had evidence-based commitments codified in international law. Importantly, the agreement also included national commitments to decarbonisation – something my team at Climateworks had pioneered in Australia with CSIRO and ANU, alongside expert teams from 16 of the highest-emitting countries. 

Back then, we were teaching UN leaders and national governments what decarbonisation plans could look like. A decade on, net zero plans have been published in 145 countries and integrated into international reporting standards for companies across 42 jurisdictions. 

A goal to limit warming

The Paris Agreement set a goal to limit global warming to well below 2°C and to aim for no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

The term “net zero” emerged as a shorthand for balancing the greenhouse gases we emit with those that are stored or absorbed. During her attendance at the Paris meeting, Australia’s then-foreign minister, Julie Bishop, declared the outcome would require a “long-term transition to an emissions-neutral and climate-resilient world”. 

In the lead-up to the 2015 conference, South Australia became the first Australian government to commit to a target of net zero emissions by 2050. The opposition Labor Party also made this commitment. Then came the Victorian government, and others followed. 

Within five years of the Paris Agreement, all state and territory governments and all of Australia’s big four banks formally committed their economies and commercial institutions to net zero emissions by 2050. 

Enter Greta Thunberg

As momentum built, Greta Thunberg emerged as a defining voice for young people demanding action from their governments. Her protest ignited an explosion of student strikes across the world, with my daughter among the many millions in attendance. 

The urgency of their demands was made clear in the wake of Australia’s devastating 2019-20 “Black Summer” bushfires, where 33 lives were lost, more than 3000 homes destroyed and 24 million hectares burnt – a confronting demonstration of the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. 

Australia’s fossil fuel emissions peaked in 2019, helped along somewhat by COVID-19 restrictions, but also aided by the closure of coal-fired power stations and the growth of renewables. 

Climateworks’ analysis demonstrated the economic opportunity offered by boosting decarbonisation efforts to reinvigorate the Australian economy. 

Attention turned to COP

As the nation faced the long process of recovery, the demand for better action on climate change was in sharp focus heading into the 26th Conference of Parties (COP) in Glasgow in 2021. This conference saw the then-Australian prime minister Scott Morrison commit Australia to net zero emissions by 2050. 

Now in 2025, Australia’s net zero target has been in legislation for three years, and company financial reporting laws contain the international standards for including climate and emissions information in annual reports. 

The federal government has set a target of 62% to 70% emissions reduction by 2035, aimed at keeping emissions below 2°C, and as of this September, Australia has six national net zero sector plans. 

The plans cover energy, industry, resources, buildings, transport and agriculture, and were among more than 1000 pages of climate policy published after years of work, including a National Adaptation Plan and a National Climate Risk Assessment. 

Investors are now calling for these policy approaches to be legislated and revised every few years. 

Agreement has been pivotal

Before the Paris Agreement, I remember previous conferences investigating the consequences of a 4°C warmer world. In the agreement, nations accepted the scientific consensus that well below 2°C of warming is the most we should reach before triggering a cascade of tipping points. 

It’s a massive feat to reorient economies away from fossil fuels after a century of underpinning growth on their extraction and combustion, but the transition is underway, and the Paris Agreement has been pivotal in accelerating the shift. 

In this time, global efforts have brought the initial 4°C trajectory to 2.3°C to 2.8°C. The Paris Agreement requires continuous ratcheting up of commitments, and further improvements will indeed be needed. Such improvements have been top of the agenda at COP30 in Brazil, which ends this week. 

A foundation, not the finish line

Next year is the 20th anniversary of An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's seminal film on climate change. Aptly named, its message persists: As much as we’d like to ignore climate change, it won’t go away, so we can’t either. And leaning into the solutions is the quickest way to make the truth more convenient. 

My daughter is now in high school. She’s growing up in a world where governments are committed to addressing climate change and achieving net zero emissions – but this is a foundation to build on, not a finish line. She won’t be eligible to vote until 2030, and her younger sister in 2035. 

Every five years, the next phase of policies must accelerate the transition, and each COP meeting is an opportunity to pick up the pace. The onus is on all adults in leadership positions now to ensure the actions this decade make it easier, not harder, for the next generation to thrive in a zero-emissions economy.