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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

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

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, @07:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @07:57AM (#275726)

    Oh, there are penalties for non-compliance. They may not be legally enforced, but they exist.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @08:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 13 2015, @08:48AM (#275733)

    I assume you refer to the destruction of our habitable space. If so, that is the whole thing they are supposedly trying to avoid so it doesn't count.