Representatives from 196 nations made a historic pact Saturday, agreeing to adopt green energy sources, cut down on climate change emissions and limit the rise of global temperatures – while also cooperating to cope with the impact of unavoidable climate change.
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The climate deal reached in Paris at the weekend is as historic as the effusive comments from world leaders suggest – for the first time they have all signed up to an agreement that recognises the risks to life on Earth from man-made climate change. “It will change the world’s approach to fossil fuels, and it establishes an achievable path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to respond to the potentially devastating changes caused by climate change”.
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The leaders through the agreement have marked 2018 to meet and take stock of the collective efforts of countries. “This agreement sends a powerful signal that the world is fully committed to a low-carbon future”, he said.
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Prime Minister David Cameron said: “In striking this deal, the nations of the world have shown what unity, ambition and perseverance can do”.
Some environmentalists said the Paris agreement was a turning point, predicting the 1.5C goal would help to doom the fossil-fuel industry.
Some proponents of the agreement are likely to argue that, while virtually everything the developing countries are asked to do in the agreement is voluntary, it is still important to put them on the record in support of the goals of carbon gas emission reductions and climate change adaptation.
In a win for vulnerable low-lying nations who had portrayed the summit as the last chance to avoid the existential threat of rising seas, nations would “pursue efforts” to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as they had hoped.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figures with the COP21 President Celebrate the Adoption of Paris Agreement.
The UN’s climate science panel says greenhouse-gas emissions have to drop 40-70 percent between 2010 and 2050, and to zero by 2100.
On the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, developed countries agreed to raise 100 billion USA dollars a year by 2020 to help developing countries transform their economies.
“As a result of the climate agreement we can be more confident the Earth will be in better shape”, he added.
The only hope lies in hard-fought provisions in the pact to encourage nations to ramp up their actions over time, and thus keep a 2C goal in focus.
“Climate justice has won and we are all working towards a greener future”, he said.
Phil Jennings, the secretary general of the UNI global union, which has 20 million affiliated members in 140 countries, said: “The world now has a shared vision”. As was the case with the fundamentally flawed nuclear Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action it entered into with Iran, however, the Obama administration’s zealous pursuit of a nice-sounding climate change agreement has led the United States into a sucker’s deal. In October 2007, the scientific team shares the Nobel Peace Prize with former USA vice president Al Gore for their efforts in raising the alarm about climate change. And “Parties shall cooperate in taking measures, as appropriate, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information”.
That’s why climate activists are ecstatic the world over right now.
Strengthening ability to recover from the impacts of climate change. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the deal saying, “History will remember this day”.
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The Paris Agreement actually echoes the message of Pope Francis in Laudato Si: “The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together, to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change”.
