French Activists
The COP21 resulted in an agreement that was 25 years in the making, beginning with the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Until now the world had been unable to reach an agreement on combating climate change. Because the document required unanimous consensus it is the lowest common denominator. Countries that depend on oil as the basis of their economy, like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, as well as those with strong climate denialism, like Australia and the United States, which combines denialism with corporate domination of government, all had to agree.
From CommonDreams.
From CommonDreams.
The lowest common denominator is not good enough. Friends of the Earth International described the agreement as “a sham.” The New Internationalist,measuring the deal against the People’s Climate Test developed before COP21, described it as “an epic fail on a planetary scale.” Climate scientist James Hansen said it was a “fraud . . . fake . . . bullshit.”
Low Expectations for COP21
We had low expectations going into COP21 recognizing the involvement of polluters and corporate underwriting and the reality that developed countries put corporate profits ahead of people and planet. The fact that they achieved a framework based on some science-based goals was better than expected. Now it is up to the people to push for policies at all levels of government to make the Paris Accord effective. We have the potential to use this deal to create a turning point in humanity’s struggle for climate justice and end the fossil fuel era, but only if the people mobilize to make it so.
Countries came to Paris with reduction targets, and renegotiating those targets was not part of COP21. While COP21 ended with an agreement to not raise the Earth’s temperature by more than 2º Celsius (3.6º Fahrenheit) and to attempt to keep it at 1.5º Celsius (3.47º Fahrenheit) the targets of the nations, when combined, go beyond those levels. So nations must lower their targets and put in place policies to achieve greater reductions.
At the halfway point of COP21 there were concerns about the agreement being insufficient, whether nations were representing corporate interests rather than the needs of the planet and whether negotiations would end in disaster. As negotiations continued, civil society pushed negotiators to improve their positions to protect vulnerable communities and speed up the transition to renewable energy. As the end neared, the High Ambition Coalition, representing more than 100 countries, formed in secrecy six months ago, went public to push for a legally binding global agreement.
When the agreement was concluded there was mixed reaction – on one hand it was finally a framework that was universally agreed on, but on the other it provided inadequate funds for developing nations most impacted by the climate crisis, had no enforceable provisions and left it to individual nations to reduce climate emissions. There were no specific policies like a carbon tax or specific reductions in the use of carbon energy, just a framework. On the final day, tens of thousands of people gathered throughout Paris drawing red lines in protest urging climate justice, stopping the construction of carbon infrastructure, moving investment from carbon to clean energy and urging that carbon be left in the ground.