What sort of world are they going to inherit?
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Most importantly, a change was made from a penalty-oriented agreement, which would sanction nations that can not meet reduction targets, to an incentive one that encourages cooperation toward meeting individual countries’ targets.
As sea levels rise and deserts expand more refugees will come knocking on our door. It’s on us to compel our government to keep fossil fuels in the ground, ban fracking, and get to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.
Didcot’s gas-fired power station will eventually close.
“When it comes to climate change, cities are where it’s at”.
The president of COP21, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, announced a deal he described as being “a major leap for mankind”. They could have the cushion of the Global Environment Facility which has traditionally been funding their National Adaptation Programme of Action, for instance.
US President Obama, Chinese premier Xi, Putin from Russian Federation and the rest all agreed. It is a deal which aims to be ambitious, balanced, fair, universal and legally binding, and to limit global warming to well below 2°C – to work towards 1.5°C, which is more ambitious than many would have thought just a few years ago.
Fourth, world leaders must push harder for carbon pricing.
In addition, a review mechanism has been established whereby every five years, beginning in 2018, Parties will regularly review what is needed in line with science. $100bn will be set aside to help poorer countries get out of fossil fuels. The more we emit, the less the atmosphere can take before triggering changes that are devastating and irreversible.
Today scientists tell us the planet can not cope.
Data from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) reveals that rice yields drop as much as 10% for every 1% rise in temperature-an alarming fact for a region that counts rice as the staple food. Cyclones in the hotter tropics are more powerful.
Oxford is in the lead in tackling climate change.
He asserted that India’s right to grow had been fully protected by the Paris Agreement, which also provided for transfer of technology to the developing countries.
While 99% of the world would like to defuse negative climate change scenarios, the 1% that relies financially on oil, gas and coal will fight change. For those who love their cars, the government might introduce stronger incentives for electric vehicles.
Now we know it is all worthwhile.
The agreement also creates a crucial “transparency” regime that requires both rich and poor countries to monitor, report and verify their emission cuts, but gives developing countries “flexibility” to do so.
Second, the agreement includes a process of future assessment and revision of targets.
It should be noted that this agreement is not legally binding to anyone, and has final goals that are 85 years in the future, meaning the current signers won’t be there to see them. But it’s a start. That’s why more than 80 US corporations (as of October 2015, but growing since) have committed to significant emissions reductions over the next 15 years.
In Oxfordshire the public’s commitment to saving the planet is clear.
We have the solutions, but we need to come out and go to the streets to call for them to be rolled out more quickly and more fairly.
“India is happy with the outcome of the COP-21 in Paris”.
The White House, for example, has said that the United States will commit to “reduc[ing] carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030”, a goal already presented with Obama’s Clean Power Plan in August. Though critics say this range is evidence of scientific or economic uncertainty, the reality is that the prices vary depending on non-scientific value judgments. The Paris Agreement may be the time when the world’s leaders finally realized that the costs of inaction are greater than the costs of action.
“We have an opportunity to build a new economy, and business is poised to help make it happen”, said Richard Branson, the Virgin Group chief executive said.
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But if it is irresponsible to simply dismiss the issue, it is also irresponsible to ignore the economic havoc that could result if the world suddenly had to abandon the fossil fuels that provide cheap energy and sustain the economy.
