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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: 4, Insightful) by Mr Big in the Pants on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:28PM

    by Mr Big in the Pants (4956) on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:28PM (#275855)

    "and about the best you were going to do given the subject"

    I am sorry but it's not fucking good enough then. It is weak. It is a sham. It result in no change in behaviour from what was going to happen anyway.

    Something is NOT always better than nothing; this is flawed logic you are using.

    Rather the talks be labelled a complete and utter failure so the world can see what is really going on than this pretence of doing anything.

    What the politicians have done, which is EXACTLY what they wanted to do, was give the pretence of success and kick the ball to 2020 when almost none of them will still be in power. They get credit for nothing and then don't have to deal with the fallout.
    China is a dictatorship so they don't give a fuck. The US will probably have a republican in by then or a republican senate so nothing will happen as per usual.

    SAME SAME

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