Worse, a USA withdrawal would leave the cause without billions of dollars of finance for developing countries to make the shift to clean energy or the means to shore up defences against climate change impacts that can no longer be avoided.
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As the Marrakech round of the UNsponsored climate talks entered its final stretch, countries came together reiterate their commitment to work together to implement actions to tackle climate change, and ensure sustainable development. But on Wednesday, O’Reilly said staying in the Paris agreement would “buy some goodwill overseas” for the incoming president.
Aware that current plans submitted by countries are not enough to keep the world from risky levels of warming, the proclamation calls for an urgent increase of ambitions on cutting carbon.
It said, “We, collectively, call on all non-state actors to join us for immediate and ambitious action and mobilization, building on their important achievements, noting the many initiatives and the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action itself, launched in Marrakech”.
The 196-nation forum was stunned to see an avowed climate change-denier capture the White House, and has been left to ponder the impact that could have on their collective effort to beat back the threat of global warming.
For the Pacific island region, climate change is a matter of survival.
Even with the Paris Agreement, temperatures are set to rise by as much as 3.4 degrees Celsius – about 6.1 degrees Fahrenheit – by 2100 from pre-industrial levels, according to a United Nations report this month.
Several times he has stated that he will do everything he can to destroy Obama’s legacy, including ripping the Paris agreement.
At the talks this week, French President Francois Hollande warned that inaction on climate change would be “disastrous for future generations and risky for peace”.
Morocco’s Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar, waves to journalists after the proclamation of Marrakech, at the COP22 climate change conference, in Marrakech, Morocco, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016. In 2015, they invested more than the United States and European Union combined and despite basically building their economy on coal, they want to make the switch to renewables as soon as possible.
The target could be achieved only if the three biggest emitters – US, India and China – shift to renewable sources of energy for reducing their emissions. Pacific countries have established some of the world’s largest marine protected areas to safeguard our planet. In the COP22 document the nations reaffirmed a goal of mobilizing some 100 billion USA dollars in climate finance, from both public and private sources, by 2020 to help developing countries.
The 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change has wrapped up in Morocco.
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They strongly affirmed the need of joint-labor in facing climate change and resolving other environmental issues. To view the entire series, visit here.
