| COP 21 Paris Agreement Makes History | 14 December 15 |
As part of a concerted effort to avoid catastrophic climate change, the world's governments unanimously committed to an ongoing effort of increasingly deeper emissions reductions aimed at keeping total warming "to well below 2°C [3.6°F] above preindustrial levels." The full text of this Paris Agreement goes even further, with the parties agreeing "to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change." "Canada has reasserted itself on the world stage by playing a strong role in developing the historic Paris agreement to curb the climate threat facing us all," said Anthony Swift, Canada Project Director at NRDC. Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, described the Paris goal of 1.5 degrees C as "encouraging," but warned that an accelerated transition to renewable power was vital if such an ambitious deal was to succeed. "At last, a historic international agreement on climate change has been finalized. Now it's up to citizens and their governments to ensure a safe future, free from catastrophic climate impacts. And that means Canada has work to turn its strong words in Paris into actions at home," said Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence. To help avoid catastrophic climate change and keep global warming within 1.5 degrees C, Gray said Canada had to roll out a new federal climate framework within the next 90 days aimed at total decarbonisation by 2050. "It sets the international framework," Christine McKenna, Canada's Environment and Climate Change minister, said. 'We need to be ambitious now in Canada too.'
View December 14, 2015 National Observer article |
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