Paulo Lima and Roberto
Barbiero.
The prospects in
relation to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change COP21, which is
taking place in Paris from 30 November to 11 December, are being described as a
great turning
point in history.
The conference,
which expects to host over fifty thousand people and twenty five thousand
different officials from 196 countries, including Barack Obama, Xi Juinping,
Dilma Rousseff and Narenda Modi, places climate change as the key and a
challenge for the scientific, political, moral and economic agendas. Paris can
definitely play an important role in these negotiations, bearing in mind the
already negative impacts streaming out from vulnerable countries in relation to
socio and economic outcomes.
Although climate
has constantly changed on our planet, what is currently worrying is the rapid
way the Earth is warming up, in a quite unprecedented way when compared to the
history of mankind.
The industrial
revolution, the growth of human population, including human actions towards
climate issues, have had a significant role in the greenhouse effect, resulting
in increasing carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
The high levels of
carbon dioxide are mainly caused by the use of fossil fuel, deforestation and
increases of methane and nitrous oxide due to agriculture, livestock and
changes in the way people use land.
Despite the
well-known factors accountable for major emissions of greenhouse gases (power
production, transport, construction and industry), deforestation, the food
production chain and soil changes are also other elements to factor into this
scenario.
The scientific
community (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change – IPCC) has long raised
the red alert for a need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas effects in
order to avoid the Planet's temperature raising by +2C, compared to pre
industry levels. This means that there are already huge risks and impacts that
will have a knock on effect on oceans and on the atmospheric conditions which
are possibly irreversible.
Is a new Agreement possible?
The attention
drawn to COP21 in Paris lies in the fact that it will be possible to approve a
new global and legal climate change agreement, applicable to the whole
international community, from industrialised countries (USA, EU) – who account
for the highest percentage of greenhouse effect gas emissions - to emerging
ones (Brazil, China and India) who have recently increased their emissions
significantly over the last years.
Head of states are
confident and optimistic on this upcoming agreement, which has now been
disclosed to the wider public as a draft document. However, there is still a
long way to go, as the current paper, consisting of 55 pages and approximately
1800 questions, will have to be agreed on unanimously by all states. To give an
example, there are 16 different options on the topic of the reduction of
greenhouse effect gas emissions. Still, the financing of climate change support
actions and the implementation of mechanisms for transparency are also other
serious questions that need to be addressed during this conference.
The current
proposal document on climate change has been adapted significantly in order to
incorporate and accommodate the imperatives on human, gender, indigenous, and
migrant rights; all topics that have had a great demand (impact?) and pressure
on our society.
The executive
secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana
Figueres, has no doubt that Paris will reach an agreement. Her concern,
however, is whether this agreement will be strong enough to put the world on
the right path and reach the objective of reducing global warming to less than
2 degrees.
Meanwhile only good intentions…
As a starting
point, all countries were invited to present their Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions (INDCs) and their plans towards the fight against
climate change as well as different tactics (mitigation, adaptation,
technological interchange or financial).
Around 147
countries presented their proposals towards a reduction of global emissions,
which meant a total of 86% of reduction in global greenhouse effect emissions
in 2010, exceeding initial expectations and demonstrating a great interest in
the Paris Conference.
The majority of
these commitments however, are derived from mechanisms of adaptation such as
the important idea of mitigation, which is as instrumental in this process as
adaptation. Also relevant here is the role of USA and China among the key
players in a game that is increasingly becoming important for these big players
in the light of global economy.
In any case, the
challenge is still wide and overarching, according to many spectators who are
of the opinion that although this is a good project, there is a feeling that
proposals may not meet the expected reduction of global warming by 2 degrees
Celsius.
This leads to
other fundamental questions on how to monitor emissions and set up a
transparent process when accessing data from each country. The EU, for example,
has introduced strict mechanisms to its members in order to meet the
regulations and objectives, but could this be extended or mirrored to other
countries outside the EU? Could the sanctions be applied too?
And last but not
least is the discussion around the financial resources for this endeavour, as
well as the support needed towards developing countries that are less
responsible for the levels of emissions and subsequently will be suffering the
most with such climate changes.
Civil Society Participation
Throughout these
discussions, one must not forget the recent terrorist attacks that happened in
Paris, Beirut and Bamako and the impact on the levels of security around the
world.
Despite the high
levels of security in Europe, particularly in Paris, we believe that COP21
should not be happening behind closed doors, precluding many protest movements
planned to take place in Paris, such as the March for Climate on 29th
November, and the International Youth Conference on Climate (COY11), which will
gather hundreds of young people from around the world.
Unfortunately the
tendency as a reaction to terrorist attacks is to close down access to public
spaces or any public participation in such areas, where in fact it should be
the opposite. We should advocate for a world of peace, fighting inequality and
aiming to get climate justice. It is in
this spirit that a group of young people from the Youth International News
Agency, supported by Viracao Edu Communication (in collaboration with Red+Vos, Fundación
Tierravida, Fundação Friedrich Ebert, Rede de Adolescentes e Jovens
Comunicadoras e Comunicadores, Engajamundo, Coletivo Clímax Brasil, Monde
Pluriel, Província Autônoma de Trento, Associazione In Medias Res e
Osservatorio Trentino sul Clima) will be following COP21 and reporting
their views to the world.
Paulo Lima – is
the founder and director of Viracao Edu Communication and he is the coordinator
of the International Youth News Agency in Paris, with the participation of 30
young people from 12 countries.
Roberto Barbiero –
is a physicist in climatology and will be part of the delegation for COP21
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