The Paris Agreement in 2015 was an environmental landmark where almost every nation agreed to address the world's climate problems.
The deal aimed to reduce the world's greenhouse gas emissions and limit the global temperature increase.
Four years later, climate change has become an even bigger issue as the world continues to flounder in its bid to reduce carbon levels.
Dr Lara Dungan set out to find out how we can all reduce carbon in our lives and what the impact would be on our lives and lifestyles.
In Cloughjordan, Tipperary, Lara met a community that has designed their food, energy, housing and transport systems to be as carbon neutral as possible. But could something like Cloughjordan be scaled up to a city or even a country?
In Dublin, Lara met Dr Cara Augustenborg who explained how our entire lives and the infrastructure we depend on - from transport to food to housing - is fossil fuel based.
One place that is determined to change all that is reiburg in the south of Germany, where Lara discovered a city working towards a low carbon lifestyle. Here, every step in planning, whether it be for public transport or housing, has sustainability at its core.
In this city, which is similar in size to Cork, the average emissions are less than half of that created Irish people.
This has been achieved by generating energy from multiple renewable sources, including new neighbourhoods with micropower generators and the opportunity for residents earn money from their rooftop solar panels.
What was most striking to Lara was how much better life in Freiburg is, thanks to its public transport and superior standard of housing. It goes some way to explain why it is now one of Germany's fastest growing cities.
It perhaps goes to show that low carbon lifestyles are not about what we stand to lose but rather what we have to gain.
