Leafy Thoughts: UN Climate Change Conference in Paris aims to Create Binding Agreement

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, being held from November 30 to December 11 in Paris, is now underway. This year the main goal is to develop a legally binding climate agreement from all nations in the world. It will be the first agreement of this sort since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, roughly 20 years ago. Current provisions set by the Kyoto Protocol will time out in 2020.

The objective for the agreement is ultimately to limit the overall global increase in temperature to only 2°C higher than before the development of human industrial activity (1850-1900), by reducing greenhouse gas production. More than 150 countries have pledged to contribute to the reduction. Among these include the U.S., which plans to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28% of those in 2005. Harper’s conservative government, who somewhat infamously pulled out of the Kyoto agreement, had pledged a 30% reduction by 2030.

New PM Trudeau is optimistic that a binding agreement will be successfully implemented at this conference. He is even meeting with Indian PM Narendra Modi in an attempt to push for the agreement, as the country has not been particularly proactive with climate change prevention legislation. Many of Canada’s provincial premiers are also attending the conference, most notably Alberta, who hopes to pitch the province’s new Climate Leadership Plan, given the large amount of activity involving natural resources and the petroleum industry there.

In 2015 global temperatures have risen to 0.9°C above pre-industrial levels, which is halfway to the limit to be set in this conference. Scientists have long said that at an increase of 4°C, weather events will reach extreme levels, and melting ice will increase ocean levels devastatingly. The 2°C is both realistic and attempts to minimize the damage but still provide some leeway for human energy production.

Time is running out for the prevention of dramatic global climate change. Some scientists say that it may already be too late. However, the talks in Paris, and the aggressive pledges made by the countries of this world, may pave the way to a slightly brighter future in terms of sustainability.