Paris Environmental Summit

The man-made factors influencing both incoming and outgoing energy are having far-reaching environmental, social, and economic consequences. Researchers have found that the uncontrolled human activities are the biggest cause of shift in weather conditions leading to changes in temperature, precipitation, winds, and other indicators. All these are causing Climate Change.

It has been found that if such activities continues unabated at the present rate, then earth will be no longer will be a place to live by 2100.

As such the issues related to climate change have become a huge global concern. There is a race to scale up efforts to tackle this upcoming global catastrophe.

It is in this context, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is spearheading the campaign on climate change. It has roped in all the UN member countries to collectively tackle the issue of climate change.

The UNFCCC has so far sponsored 21 ‘Organisation of Conference of Parties’ (COP) meetings to negotiate an agreement on Climate change. The 21st such meeting was held at Paris from 30 November to 12 December 2015.

Here a global agreement on the reduction of greenhouse emission was negotiated and it has been agreed upon to limit average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial temperatures.

It was also agreed that the conference of parties will strive to further limit the same to 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is understood that these agreements will facilitate enforcement of global green house emission reduction measures in the post-2020 (post Kyoto Protocol) scenario.

The broad consensus that has emerged at the COP 21 agreement is that each country will submit their plans of reducing the green house emissions in every five years.

The reporting and monitoring of such action plan will be transparent and comprehensive and it is hoped that no country may default on such matters of global concern. It is to this effect, the conference of parties will sign the agreement in New York between 22 April 2016 and 21 April 2017. They are also required to adopt the same agreement within their own legal systems.

Such agreement will become legally binding only if joined by at least 55 countries. In such case, it would be the coming together of the representatives of at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions.

Another noticeable feature of the COP 21 agreement is the call for developed countries to raise at least 100 billion dollars annually to assist developing countries to tackle their greenhouse emission.

Some call, COP 21 Paris Conference a victory because emerging and developing countries like China that now dominate emissions has agreed to be a part of this system. However, others are sceptical and are not fully satisfied with the COP 21 draft.

They say there are many sticking points that remain unanswered. The first being COP21 does not mandate how much exactly each country must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today. It is responsible for the increase in extreme weather events, as well as an unbroken series of hottest years on record. Indeed, the World Economic Forum’s Global risk report 2016 named it as one of biggest risks we face.

In recognition of this, 179 countries and the EU spent two weeks in Paris last December hammering out the final wording of an agreement to keep global temperature increase well below 2C and if possible, below 1.5C. The reduction in temperature can only be achieved through a significant reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. Known as COP21, (The 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), it was one of the largest gatherings of world leaders ever seen.

Everyone who attended COP21 made emission-cutting pledges. These are known as “intended nationally determined contributions”, or INDCs for short. The US, for example, pledged to cut U.S. climate pollution by 26-28% from 2005 levels. China's target is to reach peak CO2 emissions by 2030 at the latest, lower the carbon intensity of GDP by 60% to 65% below 2005 levels by 2030, and to increase the share of non-fossil energy carriers of the total primary energy supply to around 20%.

The EU plans to cut emissions by 40% by 2030 on 1990 levels.

IF PARTY CHANGES ITS MIND.

Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the US Presidential election, has said he will abandon the Paris agreement if he is elected. However, once a party has joined the agreement, they cannot begin the process of withdrawal for three years.

The Paris Agreement signifies Years of work in trying to combat climate change. In 1992, countries joined an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 2005, the Kyoto Protocol became a legally binding treaty. It committed its parties to internationally binding emission reduction targets. It ends in 2020, and COP21 is designed to take its place.