But even though the Paris Agreement is insufficient to achieve the espoused target, it may help us get there by sending strong signals to the private sector to invest more heavily in green technologies.
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A low-carbon future will take way more than words, though.
Another area of concern was the removal of the 70- to 90-percent emissions reduction target and the inclusion of the term “greenhouse gas neutrality”, which some scientists fear opens the door for unproven carbon-capture technologies and the counting of carbon sinks, such as forests, in carbon accounting.
Some say trillions of dollars could now be unlocked in the transition to clean energy. There isn’t even a commitment to a fund, in the sum of US$100 billion a year, that was frequently touted before the conference began. “The “Paris effect” will ensure the economy of the future is driven by clean energy”. “They know it can’t happen”. He also pointed out that the principle of differentiation has been maintained in the Agreement.
The commitment given by 195 nations assembled in Paris is to adopt sufficient measures to ensure that average global temperature does not rise to 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level with an aspiration to keep the rise to no more than 1.5 degrees C; phase out fossil fuels altogether by the end of the century and work towards limiting human induced Carbon dioxide emissions to no more than the planet can absorb by 2050; a target of 100 per cent renewables by 2050; and a commitment by wealthier nations to provide funds of $US100 billion annually to poorer nations for climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
The IPCC has abandoned plans for a global agreement with mandatory emission targets, and instead put forward an option that countries would set their own targets for greenhouse gas cuts, and would report on them every five years. That could mean shifting how energy is produced and consumed, building different transport systems or changing traditional farming techniques and logging practices.
Sir Ronald Sanders is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States.
The pact appears to be already prompting action.
Climate campaigners and the general public need to scale up our efforts to make the impact of this agreement heard around the world and to continue to fight for justice because the climate crisis is being caused by the same vested interests that are weakening regulation which protects people in regimes all around the world. “If the world has really changed so much, we ask why it is that after all these decades all our members remain developing countries with little or no voice in global decision-making processes and institutions”, said the ambassador.
While the results of COP 21 are promising, the ideal agreement should have included clear, binding penalties for those countries not fulfilling their quotas. The pledge is open to more signatories and will spread around the world.
In Japan, climate initiatives have lagged in recent years, especially after the country shut down nuclear reactors following the 2011 meltdown at Fukushima.
The negotiators in Paris sometimes worked through the night to figure out what, exactly, that number should be.
“Japan shows striking lack of presence”, said a headline in the Mainichi newspaper.
Paris climate agreement was a “compromise” which is “weak and unambitious”, Indian non-governmental organization Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said on Sunday.
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After the Paris deal was hammered out, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan will achieve its emissions reduction target “without sacrificing economic growth”. Geoengineering – which is still unproven – should not be assumed, and we don’t need it. The progress of renewables in countries like Germany, China and, increasingly, the United States is showing that strong action can reduce emissions.
