We tried to follow Paris Climate Change Conference for you passed two weeks. Finally, a common agreement (PDF) signed by 196 countries that decided to limit the carbon emissions that cause climate change. This is the greatest diplomatic success in the history of World.Because, this decision will shape the future of all of us directly.
READ ALSO: The Clean Energy Boom, and This Time, Nothing Will Stop This
The agreement acknowledges that the threat of climate change is “urgent and potentially irreversible,” and can only be addressed through “the widest possible cooperation by all countries” and “deep reductions in global emissions.” But how deep will those reductions be — and how soon, and who’s paying for it?
Here are some key figures from the final agreement.
Holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C on above pre-industrial levels …
Limiting the rise in temperature at 2 degrees (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), this issue has been discussed as a global goal for several years. That amount of warming will still have a substantial impact, scientists say, but will be less devastating than allowing temperatures to rise unchecked.
“To help developing countries switch from fossil fuels to greener sources of energy and adapt to the effects of climate change, the developed world will provide $100 billion a year,” NPR’s Chris Joyce, who has been covering the climate conference, reports.
“Each country came to Paris with a voluntary pledge to reduce emissions,” Chris says. “The agreement now codifies that and sets a framework for those reductions to begin in 2020.”
The agreement still needs to be approved by the individual governments of the countries involved.
But the U.N. won’t be waiting for all 196 nations to give the green light. Countries have from April 22, 2016, to April 21, 2017, to officially sign on to the agreement.
Once at least 55 nations — representing, between them, at least, 55 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions — have signed on, the pact can go into effect.
NPR Chris Joyce
