By Pastor Dean Simpson, for the Chippewa Valley Post
The Paris climate conference (COP21) this past December has been hailed by those who attended as a great success and an historic achievement.
The 195 nations in attendance agreed on the goal: keep global temperature rise to “well under” 2⁰C, and push hard for a limit of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperature levels. This is the first such agreement in history among so many nations. It is designed to stimulate actions and investments toward a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable future.
As of Feb. 27, 189 of those 195 countries have submitted climate action plans under the new agreement.
Quotes from conference leaders:
“The Paris Agreement allows each delegation and group of countries to go back home with their heads held high. Our collective effort is worth more than the sum of our individual effort. Our responsibility to history is immense.” Laurent Fabius, conference President and French Foreign Minister.
“You’ve done it, reached an ambitious agreement, a binding agreement, a universal agreement. Never will I be able to express more gratitude to a conference. You can be proud to stand before your children and grandchildren.” French President Francois Hollande.
“We have entered a new era of global cooperation on one of the most complex issues ever to confront humanity. For the first time, every country in the world has pledged to curb emissions, strengthen resilience and join in common cause to take common climate action. This is a resounding success for multilateralism.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“One planet, one chance to get it right and we did it in Paris. We have made history together. It is an agreement of conviction. It is an agreement of solidarity with the most vulnerable. It is an agreement of long-term vision, for we have to turn this agreement into an engine of safe growth. Successive generations will, I am sure, mark the 12 December 2015 as a date when cooperation, vision, responsibility, a shared humanity and a care for our world took center stage.” Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Scope of the Agreement
The Paris Agreement covers every area deemed essential to produce an eventual landmark conclusion:
Mitigation – reducing emissions fast enough to achieve the temperature goal.
Transparency and accountability on climate action in a global context.
Adaptation – strengthening countries’ ability to deal with climate impacts.
Loss and damage – strengthening countries’ ability to recover from climate impacts.
Support – including financial, for nations to build clean, resilient futures.
Participating countries agreed to peak their carbon emissions as soon as possible, set long-term direction, and share national climate action plans that detail their future objectives to address climate change.
The climate action plans submitted by 189 countries under the new agreement are intended to slow dramatically the pace of global greenhouse gas emissions. The new agreement provides that future national plans be no less ambitious than existing ones.
This means that these 189 climate action plans provide a “firm floor” and a foundation for higher, more ambitious goals. Every five years nations will submit updated climate plans called “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) to increase steadily their commitment for long-term greenhouse gas reductions.
Next Steps
Figueres commented: “The Paris Agreement sends a powerful signal to the many thousands of cities, regions, businesses and citizens across the world already committed to climate action that their vision of a low-carbon, resilient future is now the chosen course for humanity this century.”
The text of the Paris Agreement will be deposited at the UN in New York and be opened for one year for signature, beginning this coming Apr. 22 – Earth Day. It will become official UN policy after 55 countries that account for at least 55% of global emissions have ratified the agreement.
Observers at the conference say agreement could not have been achieved without the “a remarkable groundswell of climate action by nations, cities and regions, and investors with assets totaling more than $75.5 trillion. (UN Climate Change Newsroom)
Figueres said: “Together with the Lima Paris Action Agenda, the groundswell of action shows that the world is on an inevitable path toward a properly sustainable, low-carbon world.”
Rev. Dean Simpson is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church and chairs a recently formed Eco-spirituality Working Group whose membership includes several other clergy, UW-Eau Claire science faculty members, JONAH members working on “environmental justice” issues and other community members. The group is working to convene community conversations focused on the intersection of faith/spiritual values and community action on global climate challenges.