#nicolas hulot

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What does the Paris Agreement do?

Remember this just a kind of a “draft” of a fuller deal that will be adopted by 2020. It basically creates a binding process by which countries individually pledge to change course from “business as usual” on greenhouse gases and deforestation. I won’t get into too much details, as I found the infographic posted below that summarizes the key points pretty well, and a lot of other media outlets have covered it.

This deal firmly suggests that all countries cut down their emissions to limit GW to 2C above pre-industrial levels. But we all know that we are already on track to go past that based on the emissions that have already been emitted. So what’s the point of that language if it’s too late? Well, if we have that as a goal, at least countries can shame one another in bilateral negotiations or peer-pressure each other into reaching that target.

This agreement finally acknowledges that we can’t solve this the way we thought we could. This was the first time that there was so much diplomacy and commitment to basic science and development, with countries finally admitting that well… they don’t know how to fix this, and that they need to all work together. I think the sole fact that 195 countries AGREED on something is mind-blowing and that in itself is a success.

(Source: Agence France Press)

Why is the language so vague when it comes to GHG emissions?

One of the biggest complaints was that the deal doesn’t really give a number to aim for to reduce GHG emissions. It just says to pretty much make a change “as soon as possible.”

The main reasons this Agreement isn’t legally binding and doesn’t give us that number we were all looking for is because of the climate deniers within the Republican party. The US contingent got everyone to agree to change the word “shall” to “should” in the text. If “shall” had remained and thus required accountability, it would have had to go through Congress and realistically, would have gotten killed there by the Republicans. These climate deniers do yield a disproportionate influence over global and international climate change policy.

Many European heads of delegations present in Paris fully admitted that the reason why rich countries aren’t required cuts to emissions is literally because of Congress, the Senate and the Republican party. The specter of the Republican party was all over these talks, and reaches way beyond the American borders.

Climate change coverage in the USA

I was really disappointed by the lack of media coverage of the COP21 here in the United States. Many media outlets brush climate change to the side because it doesn’t have this “immediate” threat that other issues present and many view it as a boring topic, but it is so short-sighted to ignore climate change altogether.

Climate change is such a touchy issue in the USA. There is such amessed up debate in this country with one half of the conversation trying to cope with reality, and the other side with its head buried in the sand and pretending nothing is wrong. I mean come on! California is essentially out of water, the Northeast faced its harshest winter ever last year while this year it was in the mid 60s on Christmas day, there have been terrible floods in the South, we just had the strongest hurricane ever recorded, and South Florida is slowly going underwater every time there is a high tide because of sea level rise.

Climate change will affect (and is already affecting) the economies of the world, geopolitical strategies, and will likely engender wars over water and resources in the future. Themigrant crisis will only become more exacerbated as our planet warms up. Nevertheless, as long as people don’t see it as a direct threat to national security, I am afraid it still won’t get the attention it needs. We don’t have anymore time to debate on people’s opinions of climate change and ask whether they believe it or not. It’s a scientific fact, it’s already happening.

I think that if we want something big to happen to fight climate change and for politicians to actually do something, it will have to come from us, from grassroots organizations and NGOs. It will have to come from us pressuring the people we elected to make changes and to listen to our voices. This video was done before the COP21, but this segment at the end pretty much sums it up: