New York – Country members of the United Nations are urged to submit their action plans to fight climate change ahead of a meeting that will be held in December in Paris. The plans will form the base of a new universal climate change agreement.
Currently, only 62 of the 194 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).
Janos Pasztor, Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change, told a press conference at United Nations Headquarters that the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is “eager” to get all the countries send their plans for “the earlier we get them the better.”
The UN expects 154 Heads of State or Government and 30 ministers for the Sustainable Development Summit, which will be held from 25 to 27 September.
Are these efforts enough?
The Paris Agreement will come into effect in 2020, and will present what the countries agree to do in order to prevent average global temperatures to rise above 2 degrees Celsius.
So far, the submissions many countries have sent are important, for they focus on what each country can do to respond to climate change with a no backtracking agreement. This means that the level of ambition to reduce climate change will increase over time.
“We see momentum building, engagement growing and action picking up. All good signs towards a successful outcome in Paris this December,” Pasztor said.
However, there is still a lot of work to do. That is exactly what Ban meant when he said in a press conference on Wednesday that the world leaders need “to raise ambition and then match ambition with action.”
Pasztor also stated that “these plans will form the baseline for action, they form a floor, not a ceiling for action,” meaning this is just the beginning.
According to Pasztor, even Pope Francis is committed to help fight climate chance, for he will be present in next week’s General Assembly session, where this topic will be discussed.
Who has not agreed?
India’s authorities seem to disagree with the meeting and the actions that need to be taken to reduce climate change, for they claim they do not take any responsibility for it.
“It’s the West which has polluted the world for the last 150 years with cheap energy,” Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in an interview in New Delhi September 8. “I can’t tell the people of India that we’ll burden you with high costs because the West has polluted the world, now India will pay for it. Not acceptable to us.”
Although India is the fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, behind China, the U.S. and the European Union, officials appear to not be taken into account these data. “India doesn’t take responsibility for the problems that the world is facing,” said Goyal. “Our pollution out of carbon emissions is still very, very low compared to the world.”
According to BP Statistical Review of World Energy, India emitted about 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2014, which is about one quarter the amount of China and one third the amount of the U.S.
Source: Big News Network