A few 150 countries have already submitted targets for cuts of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
Advertisement
But while the nations argue over the terms of the agreement, there appears to be a few surprising unanimous agreement between multinational corporations that they want to change their tack, seeing the deal as an opportunity, rather than a hindrance.
According to the Global Climate Report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, global warming is continuing.
“He said that climate change hits the poorest the hardest, and our challenge now is to protect tens of millions of people from falling into extreme poverty because of a changing climate”.
A group of African leaders, along with United Nations experts, have issued a statement calling for an agreement on climate change at the Paris COP21 conference that would address the continent’s urgent needs to address this issue.
Meeting that goal will require sustained ambition over time, well beyond the 2025 or 2030 horizon of the Paris commitments.
“If the agreement is not legally binding, there won’t be an agreement, because that would mean it would be impossible to verify or control the undertakings that are made”, he said.
Huge hurdles remain, including the assertion by China and India – the world’s first and third biggest greenhouse gas emitters – that developed nations have a moral responsibility to economically subsidize the developing world for any emissions caps. Instead, they say, success would be a flexible, high-level political framework that allows for bottom-up national pledges (the so-called intended nationally determined contributions or INDCs).
Climate Central offers an online mapping platform (choices.climatecentral.org) into which users can type a coastal city name or postal code worldwide, and compare the potential local consequences of different warming or emissions scenarios. A few delegates fear a repeat of the failed 2009 summit in Copenhagen, though others are confident of a breakthrough. These are the pledges that countries responsible for over 80% of emissions have made towards emissions reductions in advance of the talks.
The multilateral green fund was set up in 2010 in a bid to help facilitate low carbon economic transitions in developing countries and help boost adaptation to climate impacts.
Another make-or-break issue on the table in the three-day talks: chanelling money to developing nations to help them decarbonise their economies, and to shore up defences against unavoidable climate impacts.
Will countries continue to push for more funding, deeper cuts in emissions, and innovative policies that set us on the right course?
Kerry added that India’s move to expand domestic coal use were “not in the direction we ought to be moving in”, adding, “we have to be careful not to be holier-than-thou or accusatory”.
Advertisement
The report comes at a time when countries are preparing for the climate negotiations that will be held in Paris in December this year.
