Many news stories have reported that because of the climate pledges made for the Paris climate conference, the world will warm by 3°C instead of by 5°C. This comes from a report of the EU Commission. But that report does not say 5°C, it says 3.8 – 4.7°C, which is 4.25°C on average. But even this value is too high.
This high starting value is what would happen with “No Policy.” That means incentives for renewables or energy conservation. But consider China. They have said that without any consideration of climate they would have done exactly the same
energy policy that they pledged for Paris. They would do this because the emissions from their coal plants are killing hundreds of thousands of people per year. Also Christian Figueres has said of the all the pledges, “It’s not because they want to save the planet.” In fact China decided to do this because of smog protests in China, not because of the Paris climate conference. So, in fact, without the Paris conference, countries would have achieved just about 3°C anyway, assuming that the EU report is correct.