Global climate summit 2015
About the Global Climate Summit
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on climate Change(UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement a global agreement on the reduction of climate change, the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it. The agreement will become legally binding if joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions. The expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (°C) compared to pre-industrial levels. |
The Objectives of the Climate Summit
The main objective of the annual Conference of Parties (COP) is to review the Convention’s implementation. The first COP took place in Berlin in 1995 and significant meetings since then have included COP3 where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, COP11 where the Montreal Action Plan was produced, COP15 in Copenhagen where an agreement to success Kyoto Protocol was unfortunately not realised and COP17 in Durban where the Green Climate Fund was created. In 2015 COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, will, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. |
What has been Achieved
To ensure this does not happen all 196 nations have agreed to decrease the use of fossil fuels that generate heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions like methane and carbon dioxide as soon as possible. The agreement also stipulates that by 2050, man-made emissions should be reduced to levels that can be absorbed by our forests and oceans. The pact does not bind countries to a specific carbon emission level. Instead, it allows each nation to establish a comfortable reduction target and outline a strategy of how they plan to get there. Government officials are also urged to review the plan every four years to ensure they are meeting their goals and find ways to decrease emission rates further if possible. |