Nations seek highest political pledge to fight climate change

Chief adviser on climate at WWF-UK, Stephen Cornelius said, “It has never been more important for the world to stand together on climate change and the UK joining the Paris Agreement is a welcome signal”.

President-elect Donald Trump’s views on climate change and the environment have sparked concerns among environmental organizations, researchers, charities and governments around the world.

The conference saw a political call being given yesterday asking countries to combat climate change as a matter of “urgent priority” while noting that climate is warming at an “alarming and unprecedented” rate.

The Paris Agreement, built on a looser model proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, lets all nations set their own goals to curb emissions with no penalties for non-compliance.

Many fear that Trump, who has described climate change as a “hoax” perpetrated by China, will act on his threat to withdraw from the pact, thus ruining years of painstakingly-negotiated political goodwill.

Participants chose to set up the Paris committee on capacity building last week to help some developing countries cope with the negative consequences of climate change.

On Thursday, governments reaffirmed their commitment to “full implementation” of the Paris accord which seeks to phase out greenhouse gas emissions this century and to limit a global average rise in temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). They called on Trump to “continue US participation in the Paris agreement”, which he has threatened to scrap, and invest in the “low carbon economy at home and overseas”.

The statement also reaffirmed the goal of mobilizing 100 billion US dollars to help developing countries cope with climate change, but it doesn’t mention any clear timeline or roadmap for developed countries to provide this funding as promised in 2009.

However, the process has been placed in doubt by the election of Trump – a notorious climate change denier and soon to be leader of one of the planet’s biggest polluters.

“It’s abundantly clear we have the ability to prevent the worst impacts of climate change”, Kerry added.

The next head of the United Nations global climate talks has appealed for the USA to “save” Pacific islands from the impacts of global warming.

While waiting for the new United States president to make his climate position clear, many now look to the rest of the world to bolster the Paris Agreement. To this end, the “2050 pathways platform”, a multi-stakeholder initiative, was adopted by the High-Level Climate Champions here, aimed at supporting those seeking to devise long-term, net zero-greenhouse gas, climate-resilient and sustainable development pathways. “But the right action now will create jobs and boost USA competitiveness”, the letter states.

They said that COP22 was named as “COP of Action” but ended up being “COP of Distraction” primarily because of United States elections results.

Mr Kerry said: “No-one has the right to make decisions that affect billions of people based exclusively on ideology or without proper input”.