Late last week, the U.S. and China announced that they had ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, an accord which Donald Trump has vowed to renegotiate if he wins the White House this fall. However, signing the Paris Agreement was only the first step.
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To suggest ways to build infrastructure needed to promote green financing, which is part of the efforts being made to tackle climate-change challenges, a leading group on green finance has submitted a report.
The OECD quoted recent studies that showed phasing out fossil fuel consumption subsidies could reduce global annual greenhouse gas emissions by 6-13% by 2050. Few other major countries have entered into the agreement at this time.
The Paris Agreement will enter into force after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified it.
“This is great news because the UAE has now become a positive example to others in the region and farther afield”, said Tanzeed Alam, climate change and energy director at Emirates Wildlife Society – WWF.
Ultimately, the world’s two biggest polluters joined hands to address the most challenging problem, the world is facing: the climate change when the US and China signed the Paris climate deal which isn’t a soothing tune for Donald Trump’s ears!
China has dramatically changed its approach to climate change in recent years. That’s why last December’s Paris Agreement was so important. And, once the agreement enters into force, that a party can not then withdraw for three years-by when it would be the last year of the next USA president in Office! “Almost 200 nations came together - a strong, enduring framework to set the world on a course to a low-carbon future”. President Obama agreed to the pact alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China.
“There are no shortage of cynics who thought the agreement would not happen”.
The initial nationally determined contribution submitted by the United States commits it to “achieve an economy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below its 2005 level in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce its emissions by 28%”. In the past, Beijing and Washington locked horns over who should take responsibility for the cuts: the US, the largest emitter historically, or China, the biggest polluter at present? “There’s no question that this historic partnership on climate change will be one of the defining legacies of Obama’s presidency”. President Xi considers signing a “milestone”. There is no trade-off between climate action and development: delivering on the Paris Agreement will help us all implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and vice-versa. We have a saying in America that you need to put your money where your mouth is.
We have also seen first-hand that our climate action brings significant co-benefits to our communities, from improved public health, cleaner air, faster economic growth and more equity.
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The Paris Agreement has charted the course for post-2020 global cooperation against climate change, and it indicates that a cooperative, win-win, equitable and fair climate governance mechanism is being shaped.
