Serious Final Draft of Climate Deal Formally Accepted in Paris

Enigma · Dec 12, 2015

Dec 12, 2015
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/12/world...ge-conference0652PMVODtopLink&linkId=19536873

Paris (CNN)[Breaking news update, posted at 1:35 p.m. ET]

The final draft of the climate change agreement reached in Paris was formally accepted at the 21st Conference of Parties, or COP21, on Saturday.

[Previous story, posted at 1:18 p.m. ET]

After years of buildup and weeks of negotiations, diplomats issued a final draft of a climate change agreement Saturday that the French foreign minister described as "fair ... and legally binding."

If adopted, the agreement would set an ambitious goal of halting average warming at no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures -- and of striving for a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible.

World leaders hailed the draft as a milestone in the battle to keep Earth a planet that is hospitable to human life. But there is still a mountain to climb.

The draft now goes to government ministers. Delegates from 196 parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change will be asked later in the day to adopt or reject the proposal.

And different countries may well have ratification procedures back home. The Kyoto Protocol on reducing the emission of greenhouse gases was concluded in 1997. In the United States, the Clinton administration signed the agreement but, fearing defeat, never submitted it to the Senate for ratification.

This time, political pressure for an agreement is coming from many quarters.

In the streets of Paris, outside the conference, protesters demanded action. #ParisAgreement was trending on Twitter.

"Nous sommes la nature qui se défend!" read one tweet, with a photo of one person dressed as a polar bear and another dressed as a penguin. "We are nature that defends itself."

Some demonstrators felt differently -- they called the agreement insufficient and chanted "it's a crime against humanity."

"We have a 1.5-degree wall to climb but the ladder isn't tall enough," Kumi Naidoo of Greenpeace said at a press conference. He did call the agreement a "new imperative" and positive step.

Many in the scientific and environmental activist communities have responded with cautious optimism.

"This didn't save the planet," Bill McKibben, the co-founder of 350.org, said of the agreement. "But it may have saved the chance of saving the planet."

Said Jennifer Morgan, of the World Resources Institute: "If this [the Paris Agreement] is adopted as this currently stands then countries have united around a historic agreement that marks a turning point in the climate crisis."

Those participating in the negotiations said the draft agreement was an enormous achievement.

"Today we are close to the final outcome," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the host of the talks. "It is my deep conviction we have come up with an ambitious and balanced agreement."

Scientists and policy experts say that would require the world to move off fossil fuels between about 2050 and the end of the century. To reach the more ambitious 1.5 degrees Celsius goal, some researchers say the world will need to reach zero net carbon emissions sometime between about 2030 and 2050.
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MountainDewHopsin4Life · Dec 12, 2015

Dec 12, 2015
Who gives af. POUND SYNDROME IS OUT!!!! That causes enough change as it is.

Nitz · Dec 12, 2015

Dec 12, 2015

MountainDewHopsin4Life said

Who gives af. POUND SYNDROME IS OUT!!!! That causes enough change as it is.
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Anyway it's a good first step and it was about d--- time

Enigma · Dec 15, 2015

Dec 15, 2015
https://news.vice.com/article/repub...ic-un-climate-agreement?utm_source=vicenewsfb

*sigh* this is why America can't accomplish nice things...

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