The 21st annual COP convention has been extended one day later than expected, until Saturday December 12. Over 190 nations have joined together in Paris to discuss solutions to the problem of climate change and to, hopefully, devise an agreement to collectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. Successful Conference of Parties meetings in the past have included COP3, which drafted the Kyoto Protocol, COP11, which produced the Montreal Action Plan, and COP15, which adopted the Green Climate Fund. The pressure is on for these nations to come to an agreement in order to avoid another failure like COP15 in Copenhagen, where a successor to the Kyoto protocol was anticipate, but no formal agreement was made.
There are many factors that make such a document difficult to agree upon. Conference delegates have varying views on how much money should be spend on mitigation (addressing the causes of climate change) versus adaptation (addressing the possible effects of climate change) and which countries should provide the most money. Unfortunately, though developed countries have emitted extremely greater amounts of carbon dioxide than developing nations, many of the poorest countries will be the ones to bear the highest costs of crop loss, displacement due to sea level rise, and more. For this reason, many developing countries are pushing to cap temperature rise at 1.5C while others argue over maximums of 2C or wordings such as “well below 2C”. Earth has already warmed by 1C, so conservative limits to temperature rise continue to look more and more unlikely. Even if all anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide stopped now, temperatures would continue to rise because the oceans take a long time to heat up.
The issue of climate change is a global problem, but the effects will harm, and in some ways help, various people in many different ways. This can make agreements very difficult to come by. Over the next dozen or so hours critical decisions will be made that will help to determine the fate of our planet in the face of current climate change. To find out more visit www.cop21paris.org/.