In December, a team of eight University of Michigan students and two professors attended COP21 Climate Change Convention in Paris. The new climate change agreement requires nearly 200 participating nations to set self-determined mitigation targets and create a plan to achieve their goal, contributing toward the common goal of staying below a 1.5 °C global temperature increase due to emissions of greenhouse gases. A follow-up event will be held on January 21 on U-M’s campus for the team to discuss details of the Paris agreement and their experiences at the convention.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon passed hugs around the afternoon of December 12th as negotiators from nearly 200 nations approved a new climate change agreement at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris. The new agreement replaces the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997. It addresses some of the shortcomings of the Kyoto Protocol that included emissions targets only for developed countries. Without mitigation obligations, countries like China and India now rank among the world’s largest annual emitters of greenhouse gases. Under the Paris Agreement, all nations submit self-determined plans for their own mitigation targets aimed at reducing emissions, and many also include adaptation strategies to address current impacts of climate change (e.g., flooding and drought). To reflect changing environmental and technological reality, participating countries will update plans regularly.
Another key omission was that that the United States, the world’s largest historical emitter, never joined the international Kyoto Treaty. Since today’s Senate is no more amenable to internationally binding emissions targets, Secretary of State John Kerry and US negotiators crafted a deal in Paris that is not legally binding. While this makes its success more vulnerable to political fluctuations, it enables the US to be engaged in the Paris Agreement and encourages accountability in other ways.
A team of eight University of Michigan students and two professors attended COP21 to observe the negotiations and build relationships with organizations and other universities in attendance. The U-M group hosted a public event on January 21st, co-sponsored by the U-M Climate Center, to share more details about the Paris Agreement, its myriad implications, and their first-hand experiences. You may view/download presentations from the event on the Climate Blue website.