Tran Ngo Along with the exploding of the world’s industrialization and modernization, the Earth has to suffer the severe damages of excessive greenhouse gas emission from the industry for economic developments. As soon as people realizes this is a global issue related to the survival of human kind that need strong interests from all countries, the United Nations have decided to fight against climate change globally with the establishment of the world environmental convention. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty entered into forces in 1994 with the mission to bind its member nations to act in the interests of human safety. In particular, its specific goals are to stabilize the greenhouse gas concentrations at the level that the ecosystems can adapt naturally to climate change; to ensure the economic development to proceed sustainably and to prevent the dangerous effects of climate change. Till 1995, every year, a conference of the parties (COP) was held to assess the progress of the nations on fighting climate change under the convention. Moreover, during every COP, the member states have a chance to discuss and improve the agreement between the parties and also implement the global supports to climate change activities in developing countries technically and financially. Throughout 23 years of development, there are many advance breakthroughs in the convention and in the way the involved nations act with it. The first remarkable agreement which con be considered as the base for the further development of the Convention was the “Kyoto Protocol”. It was first introduced in 1997 during COP 3 and officially put into force in 2005. In general, Kyoto Protocol worked on the Convention by binding industrialized countries to limit and decrease the greenhouse gases emissions with agreed individual targets. Since the ordinary Convention only inquires the countries to adopt policies, measures on mitigation and to report periodically about the progress on fighting against climate change, Kyoto Protocol is like an additional commitment that forces the countries to put the convention into real actions by setting and following the national targets. Under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities”, Kyoto protocol only binds the developed countries and applies larger burden on them because they have more responsibility for the current excessive amount of greenhouse gases emissions in the atmosphere. The protocol sets binding emission reduction targets up to 5% in compared with 1990 levels within five years period (2008-2012) for about 36 developed countries and the European Union. A rigorous monitoring, review and verification system, as well as a compliance system were established by Kyoto protocol to support the agreement by ensuring transparency and hold Parties to account. Till now, there are 192 Parties signing to the Kyoto Protocol. The other significant agreement reached between the Parties, the latest and also the most innovative one is the “Paris Agreement”. During COP 21 in Paris in 2015, the landmark agreement was reached to intensify the actions and investment to combat climate change. This called “Paris Agreement was opened for signature in April 2016 and entered into force on November 2016. It was the first time that the convention built up to bring all the nations into a common source with the ambitious efforts to fight against climate change globally, to adapt to its effects and to enhance the supports for the developing countries to approach it as well. The core purpose of the Paris Agreement is to empower the global actions to the threat of climate change’s effects by limiting the global temperature rise of this century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels with the further efforts to bound the increase down to below 1.5 degree Celsius. Moreover, the other aim of the agreement is to intensify the ability of the all countries to cope with the impacts of climate change by appropriate mobilization and provision of financial resources, a new technology framework and enhanced capacity-building from the developed countries to support the developing countries and the most vulnerable countries. An enhanced transparency framework for action and support was also provided by the agreement to purse these ambitious goals. Since then, a total of 170 Parties were ratified this agreement and the world together keeps acting to purse and continuously approach more and more sustainable goals to combat climate change. Nowadays, the world must realize its problems since human activities have been substantially increasing the effect of climate change by rising the global temperature due to the excessive emission of greenhouse gases, which may badly affect the natural ecosystems and human kind. The attitude of each person toward climate change is the core of moving the world better. Hence, the efforts of the United Nations on fighting climate change need to be widely spread and recognized by every person in the world. REFERENCES: Climate Get the Big Picture. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Read 20.11.2017. http://bigpicture.unfccc.int/#content-the-paris-agreemen. |
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May 2019
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