Binding Agreement Expected At Paris Climate Change Conference

Image: Shutterstock/Ioan Panaite

Binding Agreement Expected At COP21

World leaders unanimously decided in Paris yesterday that global warming’s consequences are too detrimental to end the Paris Climate Change Conference without making a binding agreement that will pump the brakes on the environmental crisis.

Together 150 nations and 40,000 delegates from 195 countries came together at the conference named “COP21.” The conference began with a moment of silence for the recent terrorist attacks that occurred in Paris on November 13. This unusual, but much-needed unanimity carried throughout the conference as world leaders cooperated with one another behind a common cause. President Obama stated that no nation, whether wealthy or poor, large or small, is immune to climate change. In light of the recent attacks in Paris, Obama said, “What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it.”

The primary goal is to make a binding agreement that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to hold the average global temperatures short of a 2 degrees Celsius increase over preindustrial global temperatures. China and the United States are the largest producers of greenhouse gases, which caused them to be the center of the climate talks. Obama emphasized the country’s role in global warming, and the severe need to take action, but he didn’t want to improve the climate at the expense of economy and individual livelihood. Obama also stressed the vital need for developed countries to help island countries. These countries don’t contribute much to global warming, yet they will be the first to experience its worst consequences. Obama even promised money to these countries to help them transition to economies that depend less on burning fossil fuels.

As the climate talks continue at COP21, we anxiously await the binding agreement expected at COP21 and promised to our planet. Meanwhile, climate protestors in Paris set up 20,000 empty shoes as a symbolic protest, one of which was a pair from Pope Francis. Due to the recent terror attacks, police set off tear gas to diminish the protests.

The climate conference will conclude on December 11.