Following the adoption of the agreement, China’s Special Representative on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua said, “The Paris Climate Conference is a crucial point in the global climate governance process”.
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Long-promised aid of $100 billion (€90 billion) per year is to be provided by developed countries to poorer nations to enable them to switch from using fossil fuels to power their economies, and there is also provision to assist those who are displaced by the impacts of climate change.
The agreement isn’t etched in stone yet; it will still have to be approved by 55 countries that plan to implement it, and those 55 countries must collectively be responsible for 55% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
And New Zealand – although a minnow in overall emissions – is still largely dragging the chain, despite talking the talk on the shape of the agreement and what other nations should be doing around the likes of fossil-fuel subsidies. According to the most recent estimates, if all countries met the targets they had set for themselves there will still be a rise in global temperatures of around 2.7°C (with no action at all it would be 4.5°C).
“Despite the failure to reach a strong, ambitious deal in Paris, we can take hope from the fact that change is happening”.
The Paris climate conferece has ended, and the talks have led to an agreement that is being hailed by many as a turning point for the world.
“We have seen unparalleled announcements of financial support for both mitigation and adaptation from a multitude of sources both before and during the COP”. So, countries will collectively track their progress and update their pledges. The increased ambition of the agreement, as reflected by the reference to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, is a significant achievement that has already started to resonate with “positive vibrations” throughout the Caribbean.
UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd said: “We have witnessed an important step forward, with an unprecedented number of countries agreeing to a deal to limit global temperature rises and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Dealing with climate change is not a choice between development and the environment, it’s about ensuring our development gains can be sustained for generations to come”, a government statement issued Monday said.
ONE OF the first implications of the Paris Agreement on climate change is likely to be a formal reclassification of countries known as developed, with South Korea and some others in the Gulf expected to join the club. The IEA, whose executive director Fatih Birol had earlier in the conference emphasized the role that market signals could play in attracting investment in low-carbon technologies, said it was ready to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement by helping countries track the transition of the energy sector and by promoting innovation and technology transfer. In this follow-up to our preliminary coverage of the final deal, we’ll look more closely at the terms of the agreement and what the deal will mean for the world in the coming years.
More than 180 countries, which contribute to 95 percent of the total world carbon emissions, have submitted their own intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs).
“It’s another tool to show that, ultimately, 1.5 degrees is the target the world should shoot for”, says Gore.
I’m hopeful that our world forces will connect to make simple improvements big and small.
COP21 president and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius praised the work of the delegations and country groups in reaching an agreement.
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In 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was formed.
