PARIS, France. In December 2015, leaders from nearly 200 nations met in Paris, France, to discuss a pressing issue: climate change. The United Nations (UN) climate talks yielded the Paris Agreement, a global pact that obliges nations to cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution. To this end, government and business leaders from around the world also made pledges to take action for the future of the planet.
The Paris Agreement
The biggest news of the climate talks arrived toward the event's conclusion. On December 12, the nations adopted the Paris Agreement, which sets goals for slowing climate change and requires participating nations to take action to meet those goals.
The objective of the pact is to limit greenhouse gases, which are emitted during the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. Scientists say that greenhouse gases trap heat, warming the planet's surface and contributing to climate change.
In the pact, the countries pledged to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the levels that trees, soil, and oceans can absorb naturally. The deal sets a deadline for this action at sometime between 2050 and 2100. It also specifies that by the year 2100, global temperatures cannot rise more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than they were before the Industrial Age began in the 19th century. In fact, the deal states that the increase should be "well below" this. Earth has already warmed by almost 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since preindustrial times.
Reaching the Goal
Achieving the goal of controlling the rate of global warming means that people have to stop emitting greenhouse gases altogether. Even before the UN climate talks began, leaders were exploring ways to achieve this, with more than 180 nations submitting climate action plans prior to the conference. The exploration continued in Paris, where many attendees vowed to cooperate on climate initiatives.
One such pledge aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting clean energy—that is, energy that does not produce greenhouse gas pollution. As the climate talks got underway, some leaders announced a joint initiative to research clean energy in order to make it cheaper for the world to use. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, along with U.S. President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande, launched the initiative, and 19 governments and 28 leading world investors subsequently joined them.
New technology will be required to make clean energy cheaper to capture and use. For example, new ways to store wind and solar energy are needed so that access to these energy sources is not so dependent on the weather.
Acknowledging the cost of all of this, a number of governments pledged to double their spending on clean energy by 2020. This group included leading energy producers and consumers, such as the U.S., China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada, France, and Norway. These nations currently invest a total of about $10 billion a year in clean energy. Business leaders will help. In addition to committing $1 billion of his own money, Gates persuaded others to invest.
Another key to stopping climate change is to replenish natural resources. Earth has lost more than half of its forests over the course of human history, according to the World Resources Institute. Because flora absorbs greenhouse gases, deforestation has contributed to climate change.
Deforestation is an issue in many parts of the world, including Africa, where illegal logging is a problem. At the Paris talks, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and other African nations pledged to replant about 100 million hectares (386,000 square miles) of forest by 2030.
Next Steps
Around the world, reactions to the agreement were mixed. Millions celebrated both the pledge to commit resources to stopping climate change and the novelty of the event. Many say that the meeting was historic in that so many countries convened in peace. Millions of others criticized the agreement, believing that it was not enough. Still others questioned whether the nations that agreed to the pact would follow through on their promises.
To take effect, the deal needs to be ratified by at least 55 countries representing those that produce most—at least 55 percent—of global emissions. In December, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he wanted world leaders to sign the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2016—Earth Day. If approved, the agreement will go into effect in 2020.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and other gases that absorb and emit infrared radiation are greenhouse gases that occur naturally in the atmosphere. These gases absorb and trap heat (solar energy), keeping Earth's average surface temperature around 15° Celsius (59° Fahrenheit). Heat energy stays in Earth's system longer with greenhouse gases than without them. If the atmosphere had no greenhouse gases, the infrared radiation would go straight through the atmosphere into space. Earth's average surface temperature would be only about 18 below 0° Celsius (0° Fahrenheit). Water would freeze and it would be too cold for most forms of life on Earth to survive.
But as you read on page 1, many human activities greatly increase greenhouse gases. For example, the burning of fossil fuels, clearing of forests, and agricultural operations release enormous amounts of excess greenhouse gases that the Paris Agreement aims to limit. That excess trapped heat affects weather patterns and climates worldwide because the global oceans and atmosphere are interconnected.
Oceans absorb, store, and then slowly release heat, helping to redistribute it around the world.Because the atmosphere and the oceans continually exchange heat, any increase in the ocean's heat means changes to weather and climate. For example, warmer ocean temperatures increase the frequency of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and typhoons in some regions, and droughts in other regions. A rise in oceanic and atmospheric temperatures triggers ice caps and glaciers to melt, which can cause a rise in sea levels, leading to flooding in coastal cities. Higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the decades have caused oceans to become more acidic. This has altered the ability of some marine animals (including corals, clams, and oysters) to build protective skeletons or shells.
story by A3000
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