The Paris Agreement was a groundbreaking accord between 195 countries at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2015. One of the goals in the agreement was that nations would take drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The numbers that the United States agreed to target were to reduce emissions to 25 -28 percent lower than levels in 2005. It's an ambitious goal, but one that could lead the way in cleaning up the environment. As it stands now however, that goal might not be reached.
While different state and local governments have put programs in place, it looks like the best that can be achieved at this point is about a 20% reduction. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab figure the U.S. would have to cut about 1,660 million tons of annual emissions. But current programs will only cut about 1,330 million tons at most, leaving a gap around 330 million tons. DOE scientists say that it's not impossible to reach the Paris Agreement goals, just that it can't happen unless our policies change significantly.
