The Paris climate agreement recently hosted by the French capital is historic, and history will record the conference’s results and outcomes in letters of light.
We rarely experience moments like those shared by conference participants, when everyone stood to celebrate a success the world had long awaited. It was a turning point, beginning a new era of global cooperation on one of humanity’s most complex challenges. This is the first time all countries have agreed on this issue, after the United Nations spent more than 20 years trying to persuade them to work together to reduce emissions contributing to global warming.
The Paris Agreement will be deposited at the United Nations in New York and opened for signature for one year beginning on 22 April 2016, Earth Day. It will enter into force once ratified by 55 countries representing at least 55% of global emissions. This could happen more quickly if the leading emitters, the United States and China, approve and ratify it promptly. Parliamentary approval may or may not be required under each country’s constitutional law. There is a strong chance that the treaty will enter into force well before 2020.
The adopted agreement is a turning point in the planet’s history. Its aim is a commitment to keep the rise in global temperature below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. The Paris Agreement contains these key elements that we once thought impossible to secure. It does not solve every problem, but establishes solid rules for action and enables a shift toward global development with low greenhouse-gas emissions. That means we must change our lifestyles and industrial development patterns.
The 1.5°C temperature goal is certainly ambitious, but it is central and vital to many countries, especially island states and the least developed countries, for which warming of 2°C would have grave consequences. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, GIEC, was asked to prepare a special report in 2018 on ways to reach this goal. Climate action requires ambitious targets, even when they seem difficult to achieve. For example, when we unanimously decided at COP20 in Lima in December 2014 to invite countries to submit national contributions against global warming, few expected success. Nevertheless, 186 of 195 countries submitted contributions covering more than 96% of greenhouse-gas emissions.
Developing countries
Financial resources are the key to trust in the global fight against climate change. We will advance in successive stages. The historic agreement specifically provides for a new financial target to be set no later than 2025. It clearly defines developed countries’ special responsibility to support developing countries financially and technologically, while encouraging other countries, such as major emerging economies, to contribute voluntarily.
From 2020, $100 billion a year must be allocated in loans and grants to finance projects enabling countries to adapt to climate change, including sea-level rise and drought, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. These funds are expected to increase as specified in the agreement. Some developing countries may voluntarily become donors to poorer countries. By 2025, a meeting provided for in the agreement is expected to set a new assistance target for the poorest countries.
Kuwait’s role
Following the Paris climate summit, Kuwait renewed its commitment to limiting carbon emissions. Several promising projects have been launched, including Shagaya, initiated in 2011 by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research to develop renewable energy use in Kuwait. A 2,000-megawatt renewable-energy facility will be built in the desert west of the country to meet 15% of Kuwait’s energy needs. Shagaya will also reduce the burning of highly polluting oil and thereby cut carbon dioxide emissions by five million tonnes.