Climate Change Deal –

In Paris over the weekend of December 12-13, negotiators from 195 countries finally agreed to the climate change deal.  This effort began with a summit in Copenhagen in 2009 where very little was accomplished and it seemed to do more to pit countries against one another rather than bring them together for the common good.

In an article written by Coral Davenport titled, “A Climate Deal, 6 Years in the Making “published in the New York Times on December 13^th she outlines what she believes has changed since that unproductive summit in Copenhagen.  In Davenport’s view three key things have been altered in the last six years.  First, the view on climate change has shifted from being viewed as a “distant warning” to an “immediate threat.”  Secondly, the French government did a lot of work leading up to this summit and in particular was careful to be sure that all countries were being heard from not just the largest and the loudest.  Finally, “a fundamental change in the geopolitics of climate change.”

This new climate change deal focuses on accomplishes the following goal, to “limit the rise in the average global temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with 1.5 degrees Celsius being the ideal benchmark.   Some of the means by which the global community will achieve this objective are to stop burning fossil fuels to limit the amount of CO2 that is being released in the atmosphere.  .  Individual countries approaches may differ, but countries will be required to monitor, verify and report on what they are doing as well as to agree to meet again in 2023 and then every five years after that