Originally published on the CGS blog on October 30, 2015.
No, it doesn’t involve pastries or the Eiffel tower.
From November 30 to December 11, over 190 nations will meet up in Paris to plan a new global agreement on climate change. This agreement will replace current policies on greenhouse gas emissions, which expire in 2020.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. What is it?
This conference is formally known as COP21, or the “21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).”
The UNFCCC was created at the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992 and adopted in 1994. It has been ratified by 196 countries.
These countries make up the Conference of Parties (COP): the convention’s decision-making body. Every year the COP meets up and discusses how to meet climate change goals.
This year’s convention in Paris will be the 21st, hence the name COP21.
2. Why does it matter?
Greenhouse gas emissions cause global temperature rises. The threshold beyond which global warming becomes irreversible is 2C above pre-industrial levels.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with today’s emissions we are heading for a rise of 5C. There is still, however, time to limit climate change– just not very much time.
Need I remind you of why this temperature rise could be catastrophic?
3. What makes this conference different?
You may be thinking, “There have already been 20 other conferences. Why is this one so special?” Well, none of the prior conferences succeeded in creating a legally binding agreement accepted by all 196 countries.
In 1997, for example, the Kyoto protocol was produced, which suggested a 5% cut in emissions compared to 1990 by 2012. Because not enough countries agreed to it, however, it never became legally binding. This was largely due to the US’s decision not to ratify. Furthermore, the countries that did make commitments under Kyoto were not sanctioned if they failed to take action.
More than ten years later, at the 2009 conference held in Copenhagen, all of the world’s biggest emitters finally agreed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. Once again, however, the conference failed to produce a legally binding agreement.
The hope for the Paris conference is that a legally binding agreement will finally be ratified by all involved countries.
Source: White House
4. What steps have already been taken?
The good news is that progress has already been made towards creating this new global agreement.
At the 2014 climate summit in Lima, countries agreed to make individual climate pledges that would be submitted to the UN prior to the Paris conference. These pledges, known as intended nationally determined contributions, or INDCs, will largely determine how countries will tackle climate change after 2020.
INDCs must contain information on how a country plans to reduce emissions. Developing countries, who have contributed less to emissions, must explain how they plan on developing in a sustainable way.
As of today, over 150 countries have submitted their INDCs, covering more than 90% of world emissions.
Even more encouraging is the fact that all of the top polluters have submitted climate pledges:
China: cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60-65% from 2005 levels and cap emissions by 2030
US: cut emissions to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025
EU: 40% domestic reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 compared to 1990 levels
India: obtain 40% of its electricity from low carbon sources by 2030
5. What still needs to be done?
Although it is promising that so many countries have pledged to reduce emissions, the Paris agreement is far from being settled.
Many developing countries, for example, want richer countries to help finance their transition to clean technologies. Rich country governments, however, argue that funding should come from the private sector or from international development banks such as the World Bank.
Furthermore, the commitments that have been made so far will not be enough to avoid the 2C of warming temperature threshold. One suggestion that has been made is to engage “non-state actors” such as businesses, local governments, and municipalities to do more.
In other words, we cannot rely purely on the UN and the Paris conference to solve our climate problems. Every single one of us has a responsibility to reduce emissions and live in a more sustainable way.
Here at Citizens for Global Solutions, we believe that every citizen has a role to play in solving global problems.
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