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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Planetary Health

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1657860

The 10th anniversary of the Paris agreement on climate: unmet goals and unanswered questions

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
  • 2Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile, Rome, Italy
  • 3Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The contribution of interventions for mitigation of climate change in different sectors has been evaluated by IPCC in their 6th report (AR6) and by the International Energy Agency (IEA), among others. However, these scientific evaluations have not been translated into a systematic, overall appraisal, that combines the few quantified targets, such as greenhouse gas emissions and temperature trajectories, with broader but less quantified dimensions such as feasibility, equity, justice, co-benefits (including health), and acceptability. These aspects remain fragmented or insufficiently assessed at the global scale, as a large number of questions are still open on the suitability of different mitigation measures. Progress has been made in certain sectors, such as the phase-out of coal in many countries; the first substantial consideration of health at COP27 and the growing attention to its impacts; the renewed focus on Net Zero commitments; the launch of the European Union's "Fit for 55" package, towards which the EU is nearly on track as of 2025; and the recognition of the need to connect climate action with local benefits, including for health. But such progress is still insufficient. The purpose of this perspective is to identify gaps in a coordinated international action, and in particular the open questions concerning priorities and feasibility of different mitigation strategies, with special emphasis on health.

Keywords: COP, Mitigation solutions, nationally determined contributions, Technology, Co-benefits, Low-income countries, Health

Received: 01 Jul 2025; Accepted: 01 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Vineis, Orsini and Vacchiano. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Paolo Vineis, p.vineis@imperial.ac.uk

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