Representatives from 200 nations will meet next week in Lima, Peru, to
discuss the new United Nations climate treaty.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
The
nations of the world are moving forward on deciding what to do about human
impact on the climate. Two hundred countries will send representatives to Lima,
Peru, next week to join talks on the new United Nations climate treaty. The
gathering is a warm-up to the Paris talks next year, when nations will work
toward a binding agreement in the interest of managing climate change.
According
to Jennifer Morgan, global director of the climate program at the World
Resources Institute, the UN treaty would be “a global agreement for decades to
come that would bring countries back to the table to strengthen their
commitment to solving the problem.”
This
proposed treaty is intended to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ended two
years ago.
Experts
say that climate-changing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels is to
blame for a predicted world-wide temperature increase of two degrees Celsius,
compared with pre-industrialization temperatures. Scientists caution that this
temperature increase will cause extreme weather and a higher sea level.
The focus
of the Lima talks is on bringing fossil fuel emissions under control. For the
first time, China is stepping up with a timetable for changing its actions to
bring a curtailing of emissions as soon as 2030.
“It’s not
like they are going to wait 16 years,” said Morgan. “They actually have to shut
down coal-fired power plants. They have to build up renewable energy. They have
to be much more efficient in order to turn that curve.”
Morgan
stressed that countries need to begin closing the gap between what countries
pledge to do and what they really need to do to reduce emissions. She believes
that only a binding global treaty can exert the necessary pressure on
individual nations to make meaningful reductions in their emissions before its
too late.
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