The 26th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, will be held in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2020. The pre-COP will take place in Milan, Italy.
Climate Change Conference
Paris Agreement. 175 countries have signed
Four months after COP21 in Paris, world leaders are called to put their pledges into act. Namely, they must ratify the Paris Agreement, reached after two weeks of negotiations in the French capital in December. As of today, 22 April, the delegations of 195 countries that took part to the climate change conference can
Four months after COP21 in Paris, world leaders are called to put their pledges into act. Namely, they must ratify the Paris Agreement, reached after two weeks of negotiations in the French capital in December.
As of today, 22 April, the delegations of 195 countries that took part to the climate change conference can sign the document. During the first day, 175 countries did it. Symbolically, the signing ceremony coincides with Earth Day: “International Mother Earth Day has an even more important meaning after COP21,” said Italian Minister for the Environment Gian Luca Galletti.
China and the US are ready to sign
According to French Minister for Ecology Ségolène Royal, 160 countries are ready to officially sign the agreement. In particular, China’s delegation – represented by vice president Zhang Gaoli, and the United States’, led by State Secreatry John Kerry. Both countries are responsible for the major part of emissions emitted globally.
However, the Paris Agreement can be signed until April 2017: some governments could thus take advantage to “play for time”. According to Eliza Northrop of the World Resources Institute, “the agreement will be definitively adopted when it will be approved on a national level”. This means that each country needs to implement changes in order to make the document binding and in effect.
“The Paris Agreement is not a magic wand”
However, there are preconditions for a majority of nations committing to it. The aim of French diplomacy is making the Paris Agreement operational by 2017 or early 2018 at most. NGOs follow suit: Célia Gautier of the Réseau Action Climat said that “countries must carry out rapid energy shifts, reorienting their investments,” if they want to meet the COP21 objectives.
Therefore, countries like India, Turkey and Indonesia, which have built dozens of coal plants, will have to reconsider their choices. If projects are halted, “the Paris Agreement won’t be enough: it’s not a magic wand,” concluded Gautier.
Siamo anche su WhatsApp. Segui il canale ufficiale LifeGate per restare aggiornata, aggiornato sulle ultime notizie e sulle nostre attività.
Quest'opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale.
Thanks to activists, the voice of the world’s peoples resounded through the COP25 like an alarm bell. Governments didn’t reach the results they demanded, but their cries and messages were stronger than ever, reaching even those who weren’t in Madrid.
Climate change poses a risk for millions. However, women are the most vulnerable to its negative consequences: a few simple considerations by the Italian Climate Network help us perceive the global implications of this.
The COP25 ended two days late and with very few steps ahead made. Climate negotiations in 2020 will be an uphill battle as political will clearly seems to be lacking, once again.
The last ten years have been the most “exceptional” and hottest decade ever, with extreme weather hitting people and ecosystems harder and more frequently. 2019 is also on course to becoming the second or third hottest year since records began.
Unite Behind the Science: this was the title of the conference held at the COP25 on 10 December. Greta Thunberg’s presence filled the arena, but this time it was scientists’ turn to speak.
25,000 delegates meet for the COP25 from 2 to 13 December. What can we hope this UN climate change conference, whose venue was changed from Santiago de Chile to Madrid, will achieve?
100 eminent people from all over the world, including Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, have signed an open letter after the disappointing results of the COP24. A call-to-arms for climate against world leaders’ indifference.
The outcome of the COP24 in Katowice left many unsatisfied. Greta Thunberg, a young Swedish environmental activist, gave a harsh, heartfelt speech addressing world leaders.