More than 100 world leaders gathered together Monday for a two-week long international summit designed to address the issue of climate change in what some are calling the last, best chance to curb greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late to reverse global warming. So basically it’s a big deal.
Among those in attendance at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, which run from now through December 11, are what the Huffington Post called “the leaders of the world’s worst pollution countries.” They include US President Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Narendra Modi of India, to name a few.
They, along with over 40,000 representatives of environmental groups and other organizations in nearby 200 countries, have gathered for one simple goal, according to CNN: To create a legally binding agreement that will force countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels that will prevent average global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels.
“A political moment like this may not come again. We have never faced such a test. But neither have we encountered such great opportunity,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said to those gathered at the conference. French President Francois Hollande added that “never have the stakes been so high because this is about the future of the planet, the future of life.”
World leaders look for action in wake for recent scientific findings
While some are still skeptical, evidence supporting the reality of climate change is mounting. In January, NASA and the NOAA said that 2014 was the warmest year on record, and on Monday, the World Meteorological Organization announced that 2015 was on pace to be even hotter, with temperatures passing 1 degree Celsius over preindustrial levels for the first time ever.
In addition, the WMO said that the five years from 2011-2015 was also expected to be the hottest such stretch on record. Previous studies found glaciers were melting at their fastest rate ever, that some cities in the Persian Gulf could ultimately become uninhabitable as the heat index nears the 170 degree level at the turn of the century, and that the flood risk for some of the biggest cities in the US could triple as climate change causes the sea level to rise in the years ahead.
As the Los Angeles Times pointed out Monday, negotiations to address the issues believed to be responsible for these trends have been ongoing for decades, and just six years ago, leaders were unable to reach any kind of consensus on what action to take. Things could be different this time around, according to President Obama, who believes that the global community now has a “sense of urgency… and a growing realization that it is within our power to do something about it.”
Among the issues that COP21 will attempt to resolve: which countries will be asked to assume the lion’s share of the costs associated with changing the global energy supply over to renewable sources (developing nations want the countries that gained wealth through fossil fuels to take on most of the burden), and how much financial assistance should be given to poorer nations—especially those already feeling the effects of climate change.
—–
Feature Image: Thinkstock
Comments