- Too weak to save the planet, activists protested beneath Eiffel Tower
Delegates at the UN Paris climate summit have approved the final deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. World leaders have hailed the pact as ‘historic’ and ‘huge.’
One hundred and ninety-five nations agreed on Saturday, at the UN climate change conference in Paris, to a final accord aimed at transforming the world’s fossil-fuel-driven economy to help slow the place of global warming.
Signalling the deal had been agreed by all states present, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius banged down his gavel to rapturous applause.
“I see the room, I see the reaction is positive, I hear no objection. The Paris climate accord is adopted,” he announced.
The unpredecented deal to slow the effects of man-made climate change will begin by cutting and then eliminating greenhouse gas pollution, officials said.
Countries have agreed to commit to keep average global temperatures from rising another one degree Celcius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100.
They also vowed to pursue efforts to meet the more ambitious target of keeping the temperature rise below 0.5 degrees from today, which several small island states had demanded.
The pact means that countries have pledged to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning before 2100.
The deal also includes $100 billion (92 billion euros) a year in finance until 2020, to help developing countries meet their targets, although it was not included in the legally binding section of the deal, due to US pressure. The accord also pledged to grow this amount after 2020.
But critics said the 31-page document doesn’t contain any mechanism to punish countries that don’t or can’t contribute to the goal.
Saturday’s meeting opened two hours later than scheduled due to objections from the US which requested that a one word change from “shall” to “should” in a passage of the text.
Within minutes of its adoption, US President Barack Obama tweeted that the deal was “huge,” and praised American leadership for bringing it to a successful conclusion.
US Secretary of State John Kerry declared the pact would “prevent the worst, most devastating consequences of climate change from ever happening.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the accord as important for future generations.
French President Francois Hollande paid tribute to those taking part in the final negotiations, tweeting that it is rare to be able to change the world, “but you have!”
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Christine Lagarde said the Paris agreement was “a critical step forward for addressing the challenge of global climate change.”
German environment minister Barbra Hendricks said: “I am very happy that we have achieved this first universal climate agreement in spite of all difficulties. We have reached an ambitious accord. We have written history together.”
Former US vice president and environmental campaigner Al Gore said: “Years from now, our grandchildren will reflect on humanity’s moral courage to solve the climate crisis. And they will look to December 12, 2015 as the day when the community of nations finally made the decision to act.”
The deal now needs to be ratified by at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions, before taking effect.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gathered under the Eiffel Tower on Saturday evening as the accord was finalized to denounce the deal as too weak to save the planet.
Climate deal agreed in Paris
The Paris climate conference has agreed a global climate accord. Andrea Rönsberg reports from Paris.
In the global climate agreement, nations are committing to limiting global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, “and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.”
“This sends a very strong signal,” said WWF’s Samantha Smith.
Climate deal unveiled in Paris
The reference to 1.5 degrees is a considerable negotiating success for small islands and other low-lying nations, such as Bangladesh, who are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
It was consequently lauded by representatives of island states, like Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum.
Strong words on ‘loss and damage’
Another concession to vulnerable states is the fact that the draft agreement recognizes the importance to address what is known as “loss and damage.”
This term refers to the effects of climate change, which countries cannot adapt to, like rising sea levels, which threaten the very existence particularly of low-lying islands and countries.
“This would be the first time that there is a prominent reference to ‘loss and damage’, and that it is being defined as a common task to be tackled together in the future,” said Sabine Minninger who is in charge of climate politics at the Protestant Development Service, also called Bread for the World.
Weak signal to investors?
But in an apparent concession to oil-rich countries like Saudi-Arabia, and coal-rich nations like India, the Paris agreement seems to fall short of another goal it had set out to achieve: To send a strong signal to investors to get out of coal, oil and gas.
While earlier drafts had included references to the need for ‘decarbonizing’ the economy by the end of the century, or to achieve ‘greenhouse gas emissions neutrality,’ the current draft appears to use much weaker language.
But Christoph Bals of Germanwatch says that though technically phrased, the text does in fact mean there have to be “net zero emissions” by the end of the century.
Other observers criticize that this kind of wording will encourage the use of controversial techniques like those aiming to remove carbon from the atmosphere to store it in the ground.
Yet John Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research says that’s not a problem. “Technologies such as bio-energy and carbon capture and storage as well as afforestation can play a role to compensate for residual emissions,” says Schellnhuber.
One good turn deserves the other
Acknowledging that pledges to reduce emissions in the run-up to the Paris meeting are not enough to limit global warming to below 2 degrees, countries are to be required to continue submitting successively more ambitious pledges every five years.
This had been an issue close to the heart of parties like the European Union, but much less so to emerging economies like China.
It seems that in order to secure the review process they wanted, industrialized countries gave in a bit regarding another issue: that of widening the circle of donors to developing nations.
The EU, and particularly the US, had argued that rich developing nations should also start supporting poor countries in their efforts to adapt to climate change and to invest in technologies for renewable energies.
But the agreement only vaguely “encourages” developing nations to provide support “voluntarily.”
-DW.COM
