The best news for a l-o-n-g time: we have a global deal on climate change
After 23 years of failure to agree a new global climate deal and negotiations in Paris that concluded with three all-night sessions, 196 nations have signed a deal on climate change set out in 31 pages of text and due to come into force in 2020.
What are the key elements?
- To keep global temperatures “well below” 2.0C (3.6F) and “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1.5C
- To limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100
- To review each country’s contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge
- For rich countries to help poorer nations by providing “climate finance” to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy – around $100 billion a year from 2020.
Many, many people have brought about this historic deal, but special appreciation should go to Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican who has been executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change since 2010. Thanks Christiana, thanks everyone. Now let’s make the deal stick.