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01:25 AM December 15th, 2015

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French President Francois Hollande, right, French Foreign Minister a nd president of the COP21 Laurent Fabius, se cond,

right, United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres and United Nations Sec retary General Ban ki-Moon hold their hands

up after the final conference at the COP21, the United Nations conference on climate change, in Le Bourget, north of Paris,

Saturday, Dec.12, 2015. Governments have adopted a global agreement that for the first time asks all countries to reduce

or rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

AS DELEGATES cheered the ratification of the climate change accord in Paris on Saturday, UN Secretary

General Ban Ki-moon described the global consensus as a “defining moment on a long journey,” a historic

passage from contentious debate to communal action meant to save this planet we all call home.

In recent years, the warning signs have been dire and unmistakable: melting glaciers have slowed the

earth’s rotation, and heated seas to a point that marine life has been severely compromised. Rising sea

levels have threatened to swallow up low-lying islands and coastal nations, while droughts have dried up

crops and wells.

Catastrophic typhoons and floods have meanwhile become the new norm, with the Philippines among the

hardest hit by erratic climate changes that come as a result of global warming, the lethal heating up of the

earth’s atmosphere because of the unremitting use of fossil fuels.

So alarming is the phenomenon that decades after the

idea of reducing carbon emissions had divided rich and

poor countries, a serious, last-ditch effort was made in

the last two weeks in Paris to bring the world into

agreement on how to mitigate this threat.

While the accord may be imperfect, it provides a helpful

precedent for future efforts, US President Barack

Obama said, adding that “The Paris agreement

establishes the enduring framework the world needs to

solve the climate crisis.”

In brief, the deal commits most of the world’s countries

to reducing carbon emissions through a combination of legally binding and voluntary efforts. For a start,

they are asked to report on their progress, using an international standard every five years, with new and,

hopefully, more ambitious, goals set in the future.

The planned accord seeks to help developing and poor nations shift to clean and sustainable sources of

energy so they could cut back on the use of fossil fuels—coal, oil and gas—that leads to the release of

earth-warming greenhouse gases.

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The salient points of the Paris accord include the following:

• End the use of fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global temperature so that it

does not rise above 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. The ideal target is temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius,

the pre-Industrial Age standard. The 2-degree Celsius target is needed to avoid the most devastating effects

of climate change, according to climate scientists, but the world’s most vulnerable countries are pushing for

the 1.5-degree Celsius ceiling to avert disastrous flooding that could wipe them off the planet.

• Rich countries are asked to set aside at least $100 billion annually starting 2020 for developing countries

to develop renewable energy sources. The allocation is expected to increase with time.

• Countries must set up plans and programs to cut emissions, and are required to submit monitoring

reports every five years on their progress, and to map out new plans, if warranted, to meet their climate

commitments. The accord creates a system that encourages nations to step up voluntary domestic efforts

to curb emissions and to come up with programs suited to each nation’s particular situation.

The agreement has been described as “walking a fine line, being binding in some elements like reporting

requirements, while leaving other aspects of the deal—such as the setting of emissions targets for any

individual country—as nonbinding.”

Some might say the agreement glossed over the most contentious issues, among them the developing

nations’ insistence that established countries shoulder the lion’s share of responsibility, because they have

emitted most of the greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution.

But the United States and other rich nations counter that emerging giants must do more, since as

developing nations, they now account for today’s emissions and would be largely responsible for future

warming.

Still, overall, the vast majority of countries walked away from the Paris climate conference satisfied that the

text was “a generally fair and balanced representation” of what most nations wanted despite significant

compromises on the thornier issues.

It is, at the very least, a promising start, as even the small, endangered nations were heard and their

concerns seriously considered and included in the accord.

“We came together around a strong agreement the world needed. We met the moment,” Obama said of

200 nations’ representatives linking arms to push back disastrous climate change.

Thanks to the Paris accord, that moment is likely to extend into the future.

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5 Comments 1

• •

DonQuixoteDeRizal •

'End the use of fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global temperature so

that it does not rise above 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.'

And here we are in the Philippines, building more power plants that run on imported coal. It seems

to me that the president can't walk the talk.

We should put a moratorium on coal-fired power plants.

• •

axj •

Gumaya ang Sokor sa atin. Nagpatayo ng nuclear plant gaya ng sa BNPP. Sa atin itinigil.

Ang kanila ipinagpatuloy. Ngayon ay may 20 nuclear plants na sila, at napakaunlad na.

Tayo ay lumakad nang paurong mula nang sarhan ni Cory ang BNPP. Balik tayo sa coal-

fired power plants, tuloy sa lalong kahirapan.

kilabot •

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Jazz Ganaden · Production Coordinator at Digitrax Sound Productions

The problem is we can no longer think of any energy source that could be harnessed to produce

electricity. That means, what are other sustainable energy sources that could emit heat and force.

Basically, heat boils up the water in the tank and its steam forces the turbine to rotate rapidly so

that the engaged generator will likewise rotate to produce electricity. But such process needs lots of

burning fuel that comes either from fossil fuel, bio gas, or nuclear fusion. The problem is they emit

harmful gas. In the case of nuclear, it is claimed to be cheap and clean., But the danger it will

cre... See More

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7/26/2019 A Defining Moment _ Climate Change COP21

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12/17/2015 A defining moment | Inquirer Opinion

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• •

what is more defining than this for ph.

today, 3b pesos is lost in the economy due to traffic jams;

according to neda/jica;

but be of good cheer;

it is a sign of economic progress;

according to noykapon and mar;

and this is going to be a daily phenom.

can anything be more defining than that?

• •

Fulpol •

the reserve of non-renewable source of energy is still very high..

cars still run on petroleum..

and Philippines, thousands of cars added every year.. and every power plant built is coal base..

not nuclear.. not clean and renewable..

you can see the irony..

climate deal like the Paris is just a political talk with no sense of strong conviction..

hundred years ago, they wanted to end slavery, oppression, inequality.. until now, the problems

persists..

a promising agreement... but it's just a talk..

• •

bulteen •

They are so funny, today on CNN they are all complaining that OIL is to low and how much money

they loose but still want to keep pumping and how much more oil will come on the market, they talkrenewable energy with one arm and business and pump more oil and get the price up with the other

arm for more $$$$

TAGS: climate change, climate change accord, climate talks, editorial, environment, Global

Warming, opinion, Paris, talks

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