A Western University assistant professor will be among the 20,000 delegates helping hammer out a new climate change agreement in Paris.
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The Swiss president Simonetta Sommaruga will attend the inauguration of the climate conference, and the environment minister Doris Leuthard will participate in the negotiations along with a 20-strong Swiss delegation.
The researchers ran four scenarios based on the pledges, including one in which nations do nothing about greenhouse gases, and another in which they only begin to take some actions in 2030.
“We see efforts to divide (the developing countries)”, the source, who requested anonymity, said.
By comparison, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol included pledges for reductions by just 37 countries and comprising well under half of global emissions. “These are very interesting signs”.
The conference gets underway on November 30 and is expected to end on December 11-12, depending on the fate of the negotiations.
The cuts would mean the United Kingdom stays on track to meet its legally-binding target to reduce emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by mid-century, the Committee on Climate Change said. If, in the name of fighting climate change, land used by local farmers to produce food is acquired for use in carbon offsetting projects, then a further 600 million could be at risk of hunger by 2080.
It will be the biggest-ever climate gathering of heads of state and government.
The usually loquacious and jovial Xie remains optimistic about the outcome in Paris, predicting a global agreement that would be “satisfactory to no-one but acceptable to everyone”.
The ACP said that in preparation for the COP 21, it has hosted a number of meetings at the highest political level as well as at the level of the climate negotiators and non-government organisations.
Scripps climate and atmospheric scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan will take part in several events at COP21 related to a June 2015 encyclical from Pope Francis, Laudato Si, that calls on Catholics to understand the importance of environmental protection as a social justice objective.
Keen on keeping the focus on adaptation of green energy and to improve energy efficiency, the Indian government is working towards achieving the target for renewable energy capacity which includes solar and wind energy, to 175 giga watt by 2022. “Therefore my message will be that these need to be emphasized continuously”.
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President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of China and India on the opening day of talks in Paris to reach an worldwide climate agreement, a symbolic gesture that the White House says underscores the commitment of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases to tackle rising global temperatures.
