Paris Climate Conferences Closes With Landmark Agreement To Lessen Global Warming

Ban told reporters he wants leaders of the almost 200 countries that approved the deal on Saturday to come to United Nations headquarters on the day it opens for signature “because this will be the first-ever universal climate change agreement”. “This is a game changer for the 800 million people still suffering from chronic hunger and the 80 percent of the world’s poor who live in rural areas and earn their income – and feed their families – via the agriculture sectors”. Critics state that the lack of real accountability will likely lead to widespread reneging, alluding to the Kyoto Protocol, which was not ratified by the U.S. Senate specifically because of the lack of enforceability. “The report, “Climate Change, Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System”, identifies the risks that climate change poses to global food security and the challenges facing farmers and consumers in adapting to changing climate conditions”. Pushed by a coalition of island nations and some of the most vulnerable countries on Earth, this change offers a nod to scientific research, which suggests that even the 1°C of warming experienced thus far is already having effects.

The Paris agreement strengthens the previous goal of limiting warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, ultimately suggesting that governments should “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”.

The agreement aims to keep the average increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius – or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit – above preindustrial levels.

Commit all countries to submit new N.D.C.s every five years, with the clear expectation that they will “represent a progression” beyond previous ones.

Two weeks ago representatives from 196 countries arrived in Paris to resolve one of the world’s most pressing problems – Climate change.

Over 13 days of talks, 196 nations agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the warming of the planet. All nations have offered emissions reduction commitments, including developing nations like China and India. It now falls to all of us, whether in business, government, finance or civil society, to work together to take the promises on paper and turn them into action on the ground. DG Climate Action staff can help build a modern Europe, based on a fair and competitive energy market – the greatest strength of our European Union.

In the worst case scenario, countries will fail to meet their pledges, either by cheating or by recalibrating what they can afford. Developed countries had previously pledged to provide $100 billion by 2020 in this regard.

As is not unusual with these huge global meetings in which national governments and so many others have invested significant political capital (even more so since after the terrorist attack in Paris success was belatedly billed as meant to deliver a historic blow to global terrorism), much official euphoria has emanated since the conclusion of that indaba. The Paris Agreement, in process and outcome, is a dramatic improvement – a product of the growing urgency to act on the defining issue of our time. That is in blatant contradiction with the new 1.5 degree goal, which can only be achieved if we make drastic emission cuts in the next 10 to 15 years. From 2016 onward, implementation will be most effective through national laws: the country commitments put forward in Paris will be more credible – and durable beyond the next set of national elections – if they are backed up by national legislation.