The COP24 Agreement: Yes, it happened at last

Los Glaciares National Park in the Santa Cruz, Argentina. South America. (Unsplash, 2018)

On the first day of 2019 we choose to commence our unique media race with an exquisite iSting article written by one of our loyal contributors, Dr. Upadhyay. This article was exclusively written for the European Sting by one of our passionate readers Dr Animesh Upadhyay. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writer’s views and not The European Sting’s position on the issue.

This agreement; rather a resolve, almost bore half a decade worth of discussions and meetings, to reach its current state. The COP24 happened this year in the most ironical fashion and that too in the ‘Dark Heart’ of Poland’s coal country; where their humungous reserves of coal were on display.

It was sponsored by coal companies in a country that generates 80% of their electricity from coal. The conference center supposedly responsible for cutting the coal byproduct output, was literally decorated in mounds of coal. A lot of world leaders and planet enthusiasts felt insulted and were taken aback after such an exhibit. 

The Paris Agreement of 2015 was a dwindling ideology; and thus, the world leaders convened for the United Nation’s latest climate conference in Katowice, Poland. After intense discussion regarding lowering of the greenhouse gas emissions globally they finally reached a consensus after much deliberation and discussion. 

 ‘World Meteorological Organization’ released a report in November 2018, that, 2017 has seen the environment carbon dioxide levels reach 405 parts per million (ppm) – A level not seen in five million years. However, the evidence has not been accepted by a few countries – US, Kuwait, Russia and Saudi Arabia – straightforward as it is; this revelation is still esoteric for the countries not able to grab the gravity of the underlining context. 

The countries have claimed to settle on the “2015 Paris Agreement” which includes How the governments will measure, report and verify their emissions-cutting effort. This year’s summit has been titled as “Paris 2.0” by the UN climate change executive secretary Patricia Espinosa.

The Paris Agreement aims to strengthen the intercontinental response to the threat of climate alteration; by constantly trying to curb this century’s global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius lesser than the present but above the preindustrial levels; along with an unceasing attempt to limit the temperature increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius. It aims to upregulate the ability of countries to deal with: 

➢ The impact of climate change 

➢ Financial flows consistent with a low GHG emissions 

➢ Climate resilient pathway 

➢ Enhanced transparency framework for action and support 

The allocations of this accord are expected to come into effect in 2020 – which is the decided deadline for reaching the goal – and the latest COP: 24th such meeting focused on its implementation. 

If the “rulebook” is not achieved; the extrapolation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change asserts that the world has around twelve years to halve the emissions to stabilize the climate on Earth. 

As the COP24 ended, it had the support of WHO and many developing nations; and the Director General of WHO: Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that, “The Paris Agreement is potentially the strongest health agreement of this century”.

The UN will meet in Chile; the following year to determine the final principles of the Paris Rulebook and begin the work on future emissions target. However, the irrevocable part of the conference in 2020, would be when all the 196 countries meet the end-date for their current emissions allegiance. Whoever hosts the next symposium, will have to take care regarding the diplomatic approach, if the incongruity of this year’s talks is anything to go by. 

Somehow, the time from now till the first day of the next summit, has in a way personified itself to bear down immense pressure along with the ill-omen of time. Such a densely packed year and a crucial one for all the nations out there who fingerprinted promises and liabilities in the current treaty.

This monstrous task has an almost-inevitable history of “not getting there”; but if this ‘almost’, even comes close to the decided goal; the reverberation would be endless and fruits of a brighter future, a somewhat shinier sun and cleaner air for the third world can be an everlasting boon. This crease: A wrinkle in the futuristic history – could be a start of an enduring and breathable future.