Delegates to COP21 worked through the night at the Le Bourget climate centre to produce a final version of the agreement (photo: BBC)

COP 21 saw positive results in the first 9 days of negotiation. 195 countries agreed on a draft document on CO2 emission reduction, first introduced at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, 4 years ago. But that won’t guarantee the earth’s future if on December 11, the last day of COP21, the countries cannot reach a binding agreement.

Outstanding issues

The aim is to hold the global average temperature to less than 2 DC above the pre-industrial global average. The problem is finding a fair way to bind all 195 countries to an agreement when there are such wide differences between them in their level of greenhouse gas emissions and socio-economic development.

The biggest disagreement at COP21, as at other UN climate change conferences since 1995, concerns the rights and obligations of rich versus poor countries. Discussions have revolved around the obligation of rich countries to help poor countries cope with climate change and demands by less-developed countries to be allowed larger carbon emissions to ensure their economic growth targets. Poor countries have asked rich countries to take more responsibility for global warming because they have been overexploiting fossil fuels since their industrial revolution. But the US and other developed countries say emerging economies like China are also guilty of overusing fossil fuel to drive their growing economies.

Cannot be late

The world is anxious to keep the global temperature increase below 2 DC in this century. Scientists say if we fail to achieve the target, the earth could enter a spiral of catastrophic disasters. According to the WHO, climatic changes already are estimated to cause over 140,000 deaths annually and the figure could double in the next 30 years. The World Bank estimates that global warming will push 100 million people into poverty and create a food and medicine shortage before 2030. Sea level rise has caused ice thawing and extreme weather phenomena are occurring more frequently. Over the past 2 decades, floods have disrupted the lives of 2.3 billion people, mostly in Asia. El Nino has caused severe droughts in many parts of the world, particularly in Asia and forest fires have cost an estimated 11 billion USD.

To decide the future of mankind

Countries are now beginning to see the scale and destructive consequences of climate change. But it’s difficult to turn that awareness into action. Previous conferences on climate change failed to reach an agreement.  The public is hoping COP 21 will finally do something to ensure the future of mankind.