‘The future of planet at stake’

About 150 world leaders and 195 countries’ representatives are meeting in Paris for the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, with a sense of urgency highlighted by French President Francois Hollande’s warning that “the future of the planet is at stake”.

The goal, endorsed at the start of the talks on Monday, the first of 11 days of summit, is to commit every nation to a pact, after 2020, to decrease carbon gas emissions.

The main threat experts point to is coal. If more new coal-fired plants become operational, as planned, experts say the added emissions would put an end to hopes of meeting the UN target of curbing warming.

While the meeting cannot be expected to produce the magic wand that forces countries to curb their emissions, it at least will give some momentum to negotiators hoping to come up with an agreement to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2^oC.

The Paris conference comes after decades of international negotiations on means to control climate change, but as long as there are countries that are not willing to commit themselves to abiding by the rules, this conference, like the many before, cannot be expected to produce much.

The heads of state who gathered in Paris together with scores of scientists, climatologists and lobbyists need to reckon with certain undisputed facts about global warming.

It is now confirmed by scientific data that there has been a 30 per cent rise in carbon dioxide levels and a 2^oC rise in average temperature since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Weather changes contributed to a 4 per cent rise in Arctic sea level per decade since 1979.

But if everybody understands that burning fossil fuel, instead of relying on renewable energy, is the biggest culprit, not everybody is willing to relinquish that right.

Leaders of developing nations accuse rich countries of hypocrisy when demanding that they use fewer fossil fuels, and one cannot find fault with their logic.

“The prosperous still have a strong carbon footprint and the world’s billions at the bottom of the development ladder are seeking space to grow,” said the Indian prime minister who refuses to commit his country to abandon coal resources, while not giving up on moving to cleaner energy sources, nevertheless.

Greenhouse gases have been wreaking havoc on climate worldwide and caused severe, and often uncharacteristic weather conditions that disrupt normal life and interfere with economic development and progress across the globe.

Despite the sense of urgency attached to the need to finally agree on a treaty legally binding on all nations to prevent global warming, one has grown sceptical, in time, as to the outcome, especially when there is fear that issues and threats such as terrorism might still dominate world leaders’ talks.

Any such diversion of attention and focus must be averted at all costs.

What the conferees have to attend to now is the very survival of mankind and of the planet Earth, a goal that should supersede all other concerns. 

Mankind has no hope of achieving sustainable development and progress if it fails to protect the environment.

Will world leaders rise up to the challenge ahead?

There are 11 long days of waiting to find out.