“Countries are bringing more political will than ever before, and so we’ll see if the process can deliver”, says Elliot Diringer, executive vice-president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, an environmental think tank in Arlington, Virginia. He has written 53 details papers regarding climate changes.
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“At this point, our goal will not change”, China’s climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, said last week.
Even White House National Security advisor Susan Rice warned that climate change was an “advancing menace” and the greatest “long-term” threat to national security. If nothing is done about climate change and it remains “business as usual”, we are heading towards a temperature rise of anywhere between four to six degrees Celsius which would be disastrous for the human race. Ambassador Lacoste hoped that the Paris conference would ensure an open and transparent process, admitting that “it will be hard for 195 parties to reach a consensus”.
A few 170 nations accounting for more than 90 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas output have filed carbon-cutting plans ahead of the Paris meeting – but these voluntary commitments are not enough to get the job done, and place Earth on a unsafe 3 C trajectory.
Fiona Wild, vice-president Environment and Climate Change at BHP Billiton, who described the Paris summit as “one step along a very, very long path”, said a number of recent environmental developments were weighing on financial markets.
Boards reading “The planet is in our hands” and “We can not say to our children that we did not know” are pictured on the site of the UN Climate Conference scheduled for Paris at the end of the month.
It was at the Cop16 event in Cancún in 2010 that world leaders committed to a specific limit for global warming, ie limiting climate change so that global warming caused by human activity does not increase by more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Ms Wild said. “Well, it basically means that a few of our fossil fuels [thermal coal] are more exposed than others”.
The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, an independent initiative on how the global economy can meet green challenges that is co-chaired by Mexican former president Felipe Calderon and economist Nicholas Stern, recommends that “governments introduce a strong, predictable and rising carbon price”.
The United States has consistently said it will not inscribe its emissions reduction targets – 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 – in a legally-binding worldwide treaty. This will enable climate action to be integrated with financial reporting and instruments.
She spoke at a news conference Monday about her attendance at the upcoming conference, where she will also discuss her town of Falmouth’s efforts to install biomass boilers and solar panels as a way to reduce its emissions.
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“It’s really important, but you can’t do all of this at once”.
