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195 Nations Approve Historic Climate Accord

posted by cmn32480 on Sunday December 13 2015, @06:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the now-we-gotta-invent-stuff-to-make-it-happen dept.

195 Nations Approve Historic Climate Accord

CoolHand writes:

195 Nations Approve Historic Climate Accord

Following late-night negotiations and years of anticipation, delegates from 195 countries have agreed to curb the worst effects of climate change by limiting warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius. The agreement, the result of an international climate summit outside Paris and approved December 12, aims to be the world's roadmap to kicking the fossil fuel habit, with a possibility of an even more ambitious 1.5-degree goal in the future.

Even with the agreement in hand, political obstacles and technological challenges remain to reining in global warming. Individual countries will have to swap greenhouse gas‒emitting energy sources like coal, oil and natural gas for low-emission sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power. Along with yet-to-be-realized technologies that pull greenhouse gases from the air, these changes are meant to reduce net carbon emissions to zero in the second half of the century. By 2020, countries will release their long-term plans to cut emissions. Every five years, countries will reassess their progress and tweak their carbon-cutting goals.

COP21 has been signed

fritsd writes:

After a last-minute weakening of the text, COP21 has been accepted in Paris by almost 200 countries (that's our world, basically) and the French minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, hammered it off before proceeding with the group hug of world leaders.

The draft text [PDF] is currently available, but a crucial change in article 4 point 4 on page 21 is no longer there after the last-minute "oh sorry we were tired and made a typo".

Read about it on The Guardian.

Let me say in conclusion: Thank you Paris! Politics is the art of what is achievable.
Polar bears - Terrorists : 1 - 0 [Caution: to view this link you MUST accept the site cookie popup] (violent cartoon, possibly NSFW)

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @07:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @07:34AM (#275719)

    Notes with concern that the estimated aggregate greenhouse gas emission levels in 2025 and 2030 resulting from the intended nationally determined contributions do not fall within least-cost 2 ˚C scenarios but rather lead to a projected level of 55 gigatonnes in 2030, and also notes that much greater emission reduction efforts will be required than those associated with the intended nationally determined contributions in order to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 ˚C above pre-industrial levels by reducing emissions to 40 gigatonnes or to 1.5 ˚C above pre-industrial levels by reducing to a level to be identified in the special report referred to in paragraph 21 below

    55 gt CO2 = 2 ˚C
    40 gt CO2 = 1.5 ˚C

    So 1 ˚C = 30 gt CO2. How do they get these numbers?

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 13 2015, @08:32AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 13 2015, @08:32AM (#275730) Journal

    https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/681/7401/5m/netstorage.discovery.com/feeds/brightcove/asset-stills/sci/125302935197912910600301197_Uranus.jpg [akamai.net]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @05:46PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @05:46PM (#275807)

      Its just difficult to take such things seriously, like it came from a schematic image in a kindergarten text book showing X smokestacks =one degree.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @08:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @08:58PM (#275845)

    The current emission cut pledges put forward by more than 180 countries at COP21 — assuming they're all completely honoured — are still projected to allow the planet to warm by at least 2.7 degrees C.

    —https://www.baytoday.ca/national/canada-ups-climate-ambition-in-paris-despite-lacking-plan-to-meet-current-goals-79646 [baytoday.ca]

    (as opposed to 3.6 degrees, says the same source, if we continue with business as usual)