By Pastor Dean Simpson, for the Chippewa Valley Post
Editor’s Note: Rev. Dean Simpson is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church and chairs a newly 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.
Pastor Simpson will be providing summaries of the most important developments at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, which began last Monday and will run until Dec. 11 with a goal of reaching a legally binding and universal agreement on climate change. Additional summaries will appear regularly in this space.
Highlights from the Paris Climate Summit (COP21): Days 1-3 (Nov. 30-Dec.2)
“One outcome of the Paris deal is already certain: it will not succeed in limiting [the rise in] temperatures to below 2 °C .” (CarbonBrief – see www.carbonbrief.org) Climate experts generally agree that limiting global temperature increases to 2 °C. is necessary to ensure climate security. But the Paris climate summit is not already a failure because of the so-called “ratchet mechanism,” or “ambition mechanism.” This is the hopeful idea that actions to deal with climate change will become increasingly ambitious as time goes on.
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In any crisis, someone always asks: “who’s to blame?” It’s no different at COP21. Developing nations like China, India, Brazil and Indonesia will emit the largest percent of greenhouse gases in the coming century. On the other hand, developed nations like the U.S. and the European Union have historically contributed the most atmospheric pollutants toward the current climate crisis. So who’s to blame? Who should be responsible to pay the lion’s share of the costs to transform the world’s energy systems? This will be intensely debated by world leaders gathered in Paris, and closely monitored by folks back home.
Voices from COP21
Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general, in an opening statement: “This is a pivotal moment for the future of your countries, your people and our common home. You can no longer delay.” (However, as Ki-moon well knows, delay is certainly possible.)
President Obama on U.S financial commitments: He wants to make sure that resources “flow to the countries that need help preparing for the impacts of climate change we can no longer avoid.” This was a reference to the controversial “loss and damage” issue – the touchy subject of who should ante up for storm, drought, and flood damage around the world associated with climate change. Obama pledged the U.S. is eager to meet its obligation. (But what is that U.S. obligation? And will Congress agree?)
John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, on oil, gas and coal subsidies: “The world is spending close to half a billion dollars subsidizing fuel which is not going to poor people. It’s money…that we could spend on so many other initiatives… Stopping subsidizing something that is polluting the world is the best step you can take.” (But higher fuel prices also affect poor people.)
China President Xi Jinping on China’s commitment to see emissions peak by 2030: “China has the confidence and resolve to fulfill our commitments.” (So far China’s and all nations’ commitments fall far short of what’s needed, says Stanford climate scientist Ken Caldeira, “but it’s a start.” China will invest $3 billion starting in September, to launch 100 mitigation and adaptation projects in developing countries. Jinping further promised that “ecological endeavors” will “feature prominently” in China’s forthcoming five-year plan.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi together with French President Francois Hollande, on a newly-launched “International Solar Alliance”: “We can no longer accept the paradox…that the countries with the largest solar potential have only a small proportion of solar generation.” They pledge to “mobilize” investments of “more than $1 trillion” by 2030 in new solar technologies.
Other News:
Reasons to be hopeful. 28 investors including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pledged billions to support the development of new energy technologies too risky for other investors. See their list of guiding investment principles at www.breakthroughenergycoalition.com.
A Carbon Brief staff writer at the conference wrote: “If the summit has improved the chances of a global deal on climate, it’s likely that much of the progress will have been made in backroom conversations between senior diplomats rather than podium speeches by presidents and prime ministers. That makes tracking developments across the policy agenda something of a challenge.”
Granted. But climate scientist Michael Mann, Director of Earth Systems Science Center at Penn State University, writes: “One can envision an agreement in Paris that, with suitable progress at subsequent conferences, could indeed get us to 2 °C maximum warming.” He’s counting on that “ratchet mechanism,” which is also a subject of debate in Paris. The only thing not being debated this year is the reality of climate change itself. That may be the best reason to have hope.