The government and the Ministry of Climate Change is preparing well for the COP to emphatically plead its case as being one of the most threatened nation from the climatic changes. However, collectively they represent a significant improvement on business-as-usual trajectories, which could have resulted in a global temperature rise of as much as 5C, the United Nations said. Many climate scientists blame greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, for driving manmade global warming.
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Insurance companies are paying close attention to climate change, and recognizes that it’s in their interest to address the threat, said Matt Cullen, ABI’s head of strategy.
Figueres’s warning follows a similar one by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney who said last month that investors need to wake up to the potential dangers that will be triggered by rising temperatures.
You may be thinking, “There have already been 20 other conferences”.
The final agreement is expected to contain few specific numbers, in part to enable US President Barack Obama to impose regulatory measures to curb emissions in the world’s second largest polluting economy without the need to seek approval in the hostile Republican-dominated Senate.
Environmental groups said the report showed the Paris agreement needs to be a starting point for deeper emission cuts. “What’s needed now is bold and courageous action by leaders, ministers, and negotiators to produce an agreement in Paris that’s up to the challenge”.
The good news is that progress has already been made towards creating this new global agreement.
Countries have submitted the INDC documents under the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, a 1992 global treaty that pledged countries of the world to take steps to avoid “dangerous” climate change. These pledges, or “INDCs” (intended nationally determined contributions), have been a major factor in raising hopes that Paris will succeed where Copenhagen failed in 2009. Christiana Figueres, the UN’s top climate official, said the INDCs represent a “down-payment” on further climate action.
Research from Ecosystem Marketplace, to be released in next week’s State of Forest Carbon Markets Report, shows that more than 50 developing countries have offered to generate more aggressive targets if they receive funding from the developed world, and almost 30 of these explicitly mention REDD+ finance, which is aimed at protecting forests – a critical component, in light of the fires now ravaging Indonesia and Brazil.
Figueres was speaking at the launch of a synthesis report analysing the aggregate effects of pledges to reduce emissions that 146 countries had submitted by 1 October.
The pledges will be included in a deal that 195 nations aim to seal in Paris in December, for the first time binding all countries to limit their emissions.
In other words, we can not rely purely on the United Nations and the Paris conference to solve our climate problems.
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“If you look at all of the commitments that are coming in the worldwide context, we’ve had more than has ever been made before”, she said.
