For two weeks, representatives from countries around the world will meet in Paris to negotiate a new international climate agreement. What is at stake at this conference, and what does COP 21 mean? MYTF1News takes stock.
• Why COP 21?
For this is the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN’s climate body based in Bonn, Germany. The COP is the “parliament” of the UNFCCC, which meets annually at global conferences to take unanimous decisions to combat climate change.
The Conference of the Parties was established when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in 1992, and brings together all the Parties to the Convention, i.e. the 196 countries that have ratified it. It meets annually to take stock of the implementation of the Convention, adopt decisions that further elaborate the rules laid down, and negotiate new commitments.
• How many countries will be taking part?
All 196 United Nations parties will be taking part, i.e. 195 party states + the European Union, which is itself a party in addition to its 27 member states. Representatives of all non-state actors in society (intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, local and regional authorities, trade unions, businesses, scientists, farmers, indigenous peoples, etc.) will also be taking part. A total of 40,000 participants are expected to attend the Paris Climate 2015 conference.
To date, 147 heads of state and government have announced their participation in COP 21 and will be present on the first day of the conference, including Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin.
• What are the challenges?
COP 21 must result in a new international climate agreement that is universal, sustainable and applicable to all countries. It must give the economic and political signals to set the economic development model on a new trajectory, leading to carbon neutrality and keeping global warming below 2°C. The aim is to build a “Paris Climate Alliance” that will keep the rise in the planet’s average temperature below 1.5°C or 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels (1880-1899), and to adapt our societies to existing disruptions.
FAGACE is taking part in this important forum, which will usher in a new era in which climate issues are truly taken into account worldwide, and particularly in Africa.
