The Paris Summit is the 21st global meeting on environment issues since 1992, but even some worldwide climate activists are expressing doubts whether it will result in any real changes.
Advertisement
At Tuesday’s technical talks, countries restated their well-known negotiating positions on the question with few hints of compromise.
Nicaragua s lead negotiator, Paul Oquist, said Tuesday his country would not make any pledge to cut its emissions – a key plank of the planned pact – because that would let rich countries off the hook.
“This year, 183 countries have issued long-term plans to cope with climate change, but hard negotiations are expected at the summit and related global meetings that run through December 11”.
During the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris the governments of France and Peru, along with the UN, are organizing a series of high-level events to demonstrate that the transition to low carbon and resilience is under way.
President Barack Obama, left, sits with French President Francois Hollande, right, as they have dinner at the Ambroisie restaurant in Paris, France, with Secretary of State John Kerry, 2nd right, French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Segolene Royal, 3rd right, and French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, 2nd left, Monday, Nov. 30, 2015.
Certainly there was still some hangover of goodwill from Monday, when a parade of leaders stepped to the podium to assert the imperative of getting a deal.
“I think the vote that took place is not a surprise and the American administration knows exactly what kind of way ahead it needs to follow”, Fabius said. The Paris talks are only a first step.
Titled ‘Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming, ‘ it suggests that probably the most widely repeated claim in the global warming debate is that 97 percent of scientists agree that climate change is man-made and unsafe.
A press release from the United Nations addressing the business community at the conference in Paris can be found here. Standing outside the building that houses the conference’s main plenary room (away from the lineups for fair trade coffee and the ubiquitous recycling bins), he said Canada was the first to announce climate funding for developing countries “with a timeline, with a roadmap-U.S., Japan, nobody has done it”.
Obama also said on Tuesday the best way to drive innovation and reduce carbon emissions is “to put a price on it” but he does not expect that from the current Republican-dominated U.S. Congress.
Instead, 14 days will be spent on hearing submissions from groups like the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, which promises such delights as: “Powerful women from around the world sharing stories, struggles, solutions and action plans on climate justice mobilisation”. Insurance companies are beginning to realize that in terms of how they price risk, he said. “India is a bit like where China was in Copenhagen, adopting a rather defensive approach on most of the major elements, making it easier to become target of criticism”, he said. “Obviously I’m not under any illusion that this Congress will impose something like that”.
Other disputes concern how to define a long-term goal for reducing or phasing out fossil fuels this century.
But there’s no way that global warming can be kept below the worldwide goal of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times without dramatic limits in future carbon dioxide emissions from the developing nations, climate experts and even officials from developing nations say.
The plan included detailed measures on areas such as “agriculture, forestry, water resources, urban and ecologically fragile littorals in order to resist climate change and to improve gradually early warning, forecasting, disaster reduction and prevention system”.
As negotiators grapple with the details, they also appear motivated by the fearful consequences of failing to get an agreement.
Huckabee said no amount of government action could alter the climate.
Advertisement
Domestic challenges have been China’s primary motivation for fighting global warming.
