So what did COP21 in France conclude?

The Paris Conference of Parties has officially ended with 195 nations signing up to a partially legally binding program of measures for curbing climate change.  Green Prophet’s read the 31-page agreement and we urge you to do the same.  Find the full report here, saving you an unnecessary online search (which Google estimates as producing 0.02 grams of CO2). What’s it boil down to?

1. It’s a global pact that for the first time asks all countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Between now and the year 2100 participating nations must commit to enacting changes that will keep average global temperatures from rising another 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit between now and the year 2100.

3. Wealthy developed nations will give financial support to developing countries involved in the pact, to the tune of $100 billion USD per year by 2020. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change website, funding may come from bilateral or multilateral, public or private sources, including creative financing (such as the French contribution to the financial transaction tax). Public financing may take several forms: multilateral funds such as the Green Climate Fund; multilateral or regional institutions such as the World Bank; government contributions; and bilateral institutions such as the Agence Française de Développement. (This scheme stands apart from the Green Climate Fund: only part of this newly agreed sum will pass through the Fund.)

4. The treaty now heads to the national legislatures of the 195 involved countries. At least 55 countries representing 55% of the world’s emission must sign on before 2020.

The first UN Climate Change Conference was held in 1995 in Berlin, this international treaty to curb climate change has been twenty years in the making. But the heaviest lift remains as nations decide which parts of it will be legally required. Absent clear legal language to guarantee compliance, it’s too soon to tell if COP21 be any more effective than previous climate agreements which fell flat over performance monitoring and enforcement.

“A lot of that language is still in brackets,” Greenpeace representative Naomi Ages at told FRANCE 24 on Friday.

Watch this space.