A Green Deal In Paris

World Leaders have been hailing the results of a climate change summit in Paris as a great step forward in bringing the planet together to confront the challenges global warming pose to humanity.  COP21 held in the French capital ran between the 30th of November and finished on the 11th of December.   Amongst attendees it has been unanimously hailed for its success in getting the different nations under the UN to agree to action.

After the general failure of the previous summit in Copenhagen, Denmark a deal at COP was seen as essential if there was to be any hope of unified global action to confront climate change.  With temperatures around the world increasing year on year there was immense pressure on the delegates to come to some agreement in order to protect the environment.

Amongst the highlights of the agreement were:

  • An agreement on keeping Global temperature increases to 2°C above pre-industrial levels
  • A five yearly review on individual states emissions with the encouragement to lower them further between reviews.
  • Making $100 Billion available from developed nations to help developing nations meet the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Praise and Optimism from Global Leaders

The very act of getting the world to agree on the reality of climate change and the need to tackle it has been seen as a huge step forward politically for the world which has been at loggerheads for years. 

United States President Obama said of the deal: "Today the American people can be proud because this historic agreement is a tribute to American leadership. Over the past seven years, we've transformed the United States into the global leader in fighting climate change,"

Former US Vice President Al Gore, who has since become a noted campaigner for climate change and responsible for the global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” likewise took to twitter to express his approval saying that “Today, the nations of the world concluded a bold and historic agreement”.

Other global leaders were quick to cease on the success as well, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that “Climate justice has won & we are all working towards a greener future” while British Prime Minister David Cameron remarked that “Today's climate change deal means our grandchildren will see we did our duty in securing the future of our planet”

Uncertainty and Doubt from Observers

However warm the words of world leaders may be however, there are grounds to fear that much of the praise is more for the purposes of mutual back-slapping than any serious commitment to make a change.  Despite the agreement of over 180 countries to the deal, the actual agreement is far less binding than many would like.

Chief amongst these is that countries are permitted to set their own emission level targets under the agreement.  As a result there is little to stop any country from setting overly generous levels of permitted pollution in order to gain a perceived industrial advantage. 

More worrying however is that for all the talk of change, the Paris agreement is little more than having an agreement to have an agreement.  Countries will not be signing up to it until 2016 and not bound until 2017.  The entire agreement does not come into force until countries representing at least 55% of global emissions sign on.  This means that despite the warm words of Paris, major emitters such as the United States with its Republican dominated congress, may still permit their countries participation in the project.

So while there is optimism to be had with the agreement in Paris last week, it needs to be tempered with a realization that the real deal isn’t done yet.  It remains the responsibility of environmentally conscious people in every country to put pressure on their leaders to sign the agreement and to put humanity’s future in front of short term greed and gain.

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