After the fiasco of Copenhagen – which ended with some 115 world leaders scrambling overnight to save face and cobble together a political accord – hosting the next critical climate conference was a big risk.
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The “Paris Agreement” document will be opened for signature on April 22, 2016 on Mother Earth Day. I will be making a statement regarding this tomorrow”, Javadekar told IANS on the sidelines of “Climate+Change Indian Himalayan Region: “Our Mountains, Our Future” initiative launched here on Tuesday.
World leaders convened in Paris last week to discuss strategies for reducing the impact of climate change, ultimately agreeing to limit greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions to help restrain global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius through 2100.
“I see the room, I see the reaction is positive, I hear no objection”.
After a champagne moment in Paris, where a historic climate agreement was reached over the weekend, now comes an even harder mission: implementation. Aid has also been pledged to help poor countries deal with the effects of climate change, such as floods, droughts or incidents of extreme weather.
Of course, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change necessitates compromise.
To stick to the two-degree target, countries will not only have to make sure that the Paris climate accord is effectively implemented, but make even more emissions cuts than promised.
The good news is that this goal was outmatched by the final draft of the Paris Agreement, which is meant to also pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, “if a country doesn’t respect its commitments, imagine the worldwide pressure there will be”.
“The Philippines welcomes the Paris agreement as it responds to President Aquino’s call at the start of COP21 for all people to act and come to an agreement that allows all voices to be heard and takes into consideration the particular situations of all the nations that have taken this historic step to end decades of deadlock and take decisive climate change action”, Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said. Of the 196 participating countries, 188 of them have submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions that spell out their approach to the issue.
Tapang said these countries are massive producers of fossil fuels which cause high amount of pollution harmful to the environment.
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Kiwi households will pay about $100 extra a year as part of New Zealand efforts to meet an ambitious new climate change target, Prime Minister John Key says. India has already pledged to reduce the carbon intensity by 33-35 percent over 15 years.
