What is the Paris Climate Change Agreement?

Watch the BBC video clip to find the question answers

© British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Work in small groups to agree answers to these questions.

Investigating the Paris Climate Change Agreement

In GITN this time we are going to investigate the Paris Climate Change Agreement and carry out a DME on what we can do to help.

In December 2015 the leaders of nearly 200 countries attended the start of a big meeting in Paris. This was the biggest gathering of Heads of State in all of human history.

The majority of scientists in the world agree that human beings and human activity is changing global climates. At a global scale this is seen as an increase in global temperature. 

At regional and local scales however it is seen as any number of changes:

• Temperature Increase

• Temperature Decrease
  • Some UK summers have lower daytime temperatures due to increased amounts of cloud and rain
  • Several recent UK winters with much colder periods than usual

• Increased storms
  • Stronger storms
  • More Frequent Storms

• Droughts

• Floods
  • Coastal
  • Rivers

If you need to refresh your knowledge about climate change then read the two linked articles in this edition of Geography In The News.

What causes climate change? - Click below

What are the consequences and what we can do to reduce climate change? - Click below

The agreement at a glance

• All countries must set an emissions reduction target and then review that goal. 

• For greenhouse gas emissions to peak as soon as possible and then go down. 

• To keep global temperature increase "well below" 2°C and try to limit it to 1.5°C.

• To review progress every five years.

• Rich countries to give $100bn a year to poorer countries by 2020 to help fight climate change.

Important things in the 2015 Paris agreement are:

• Ambition of 1.5°C increase target

• Loss & Damage

• Transparency

Ambitious Target

Image: JCH 6442 (22802505643) - Presidencia de la República Mexicana © Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

• Some countries which were mainly less developed and/or low lying/coastal are worried that a rise of 2°C would be too much for them to cope with. 

• Many countries; especially several important rich countries wanted any mention to be of 2°C.

• Without the inclusion of the 1.5°C target many poorer nations would have refused to agree.

Loss & Damage

This concept was very important for both less developed and more developed countries.

Image: Large Landslide in Uganda - Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory © Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

• Less developed/poorer countries wanted the agreement to show that they face the worst impacts of climate change.

• However for the past 150 years it is the more developed/rich nations that have been producing the greenhouse gasses. 

Remember scientists believe that climate change due to human activity is already over the 1°C increase level almost all of this has come from the wealthy nations.

Image: Global Temperature Anomaly - NASA © Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

Wealthy nations were frightened they would get the blame and also the responsibility to try to help put things right. 

The compromise was that it was included within the agreement in terms of something to investigate.

Transparency

This is all about how everything is measured in each country and how this information is then shared and used. 

• The countries in the world have agreed to common methods of measurements (such as this automatic system) and monitoring.

• These will be binding which means that they have to be done.

Image: WQ sampling station USGS 2004 - Hall, David W., U.S. Geological Survey © Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

• Every country needs to submit a plan on what they intend to do to help fight climate change.

• This was one of the hardest parts to get agreement as Developing Nations did not want to be included in target setting and monitoring as they still need to develop.

70% of climate change gas emissions come from just 10 countries. 

Looking at the table above you should able to make some quick estimates using your numeracy skills to see whether a country is creating emissions in line with its population:

• China has (roughly) a little bit over 20% of the world’s population and produces 24% of greenhouse gas emissions.

• India has nearly as many people as China but only produces 6% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.

• The USA produces 3% more of the emissions than the EU despite having a much smaller (around 60%) population.

The ‘bottom line’ however is that whether or not a country is producing emissions in line with its population as a planet emissions are too high and must be reduced. 

Image: Co2-1990-2012 - Chris55 © Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

This is the problem with countries needing to develop; they will need to either increase emissions or follow a different route of development which will involve a lot of money and access to the latest technology.

Technology Transfer

The latest technology has been invented and designed by individuals and businesses and they are allowed to make money from selling their inventions.

Image: Twice Cropped Zonnecollectoren - Mrshaba © Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

This is a big problem as the poorest places in the world which have the least amount of money cannot afford such technology. 

If poor developing countries cannot afford ‘green development then they will follow the same route as the rest of the World’s developed nations of burning fossil fuels.

Image: Wind power plants in Xinjiang, China - Chris Lim © Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Adaptation & Mitigation

• These are two key ideas that the agreement uses when discussing how the world will deal with the issues of climate change.

• How a location deals with the issues or consequences can be looked at as either adaptation or mitigation:

• Adaptation is all about how we change the way that we do things now so that when things change in the future they will not be a problem.

Who Pays?

• In the richer more developed countries it is a simple fact that they will have to pay for themselves.

• The Paris agreement has a decided that the developed countries will have to provide a minimum of 100 billion US dollars each year to help fight climate change in the developing countries and worst affected island nations.

Image: USCurrency Federal Reserve - BrokenSegue © Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

• Fighting climate change is a really exciting prospect and provides many opportunities for many businesses.

• Mostly these businesses are in the developed countries of the world.

Image: Ikata Nuclear Powerplant - ja:User:Newsliner - Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

• Climate change could actually make these countries (like Wales) a lot more money than the 100 billion US dollars they have promised to give. Mostly these businesses are in the developed countries of the world.

Other articles you may find of interest, Copenhagen climate conference.