Saturday’s agreement in Paris to curb carbon dioxide emissions is being hailed as a turning point for the environment, but the so-called Father of Climate change isn’t convinced the deal will amount to anything.
Advertisement
Rousing applause and tears of joy filled the conference centre as the deal was passed in the conference centre on the northern outskirts of Paris.
During the Paris conference, France devoted a team of 60 to 80 permanent staff to follow every meeting, and coordinate and facilitate the talks for 24 hours a day. What we have adopted is not only an agreement but a new “chapter of hope” in the lives of 7 billion people.
One key issue not addressed in the agreement is how richer countries and poorer countries should divide up responsibility to pay for climate change programs.
The deal was not passed without a last-minute hiccup. The commitment on technology transfer by developed countries is equally evasive. They argued industrialized nations should shoulder more of the burden.
“We don’t have a flawless agreement, but we have a good and necessary agreement”. Then the deal went through.
Patrick Harvie MSP, finance spokesman for the Scottish Greens, added: “The intentions signalled by the Paris agreement can not be achieved unless fossil fuels are urgently abandoned”.
“The 12th of December, 2015, will remain a great date for the planet”.
“Communities need to continue organizing and holding their elected officials accountable so that they ultimately deliver the solutions we all need”, said Wenonah Hauter.
“In Paris, the human race joined together in a common cause, but what is really important is what countries do after this”, said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International. This ensures that India does not have the burden of scaling up their emission cuts or providing climate finance to other nations.
In the end, 187 nations came to the party with climate targets.
After a detailed scrutiny of the 31-page document, scientists and climate policy analysts said the accord’s intended target to keep the average global temperature rise below 2°C would be hard to achieve – and that to keep it below 1.5°C “virtually impossible”.
While New Zealand has been criticised for some for an unambitious target on emissions reductions, Treasury officials and others had pushed for a “far less ambitious target” due to the relative expense of reducing our carbon footprint compared to other countries.
Each country will have to continually increase its contribution and, starting in 2018, produce a plan to continue that trend every 5 years. Under the deal countries will only be allowed to make targets more ambitious, not less. “Their actions actually put the world on a path to (a temperature rise by) 3°C and above, as not much enhancement in ambition will happen over the next 10 years”. “We are honoured that Singapore has contributed to the success of the talks”. We are happy that agreement differentiates between developed and developed nations. The large emerging economies sought to maintain some of that firewall. Under the 1997 agreement, developed nations were asked to cut down their emissions.
For Paris, the next step is recovering from a climate summit hangover.
He said the government’s support of the proposed Carmichael coal mine in Queensland was now clearly at odds with the global trend.
Advertisement
“This is a small gavel, but it has done big things”, Fabius said.
