2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was 2015 United Nations held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st Climate Change Conference yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997Kyoto Protocol.[1] The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of climate change, the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it.[2] The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions.[3][4][5] On 22 April 2016 (Earth Day), 174 countries signed the agreement in New York, [6] and began adopting it within their own legal systems (throughratification , acceptance, approval, or accession). According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks,[7] the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to "well below 2 °C" Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century. In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement,[3] the parties will also "pursue efforts to" limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C.[2] The 1.5 °C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050, according to some scientists.[2] Prior to the conference, 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft Date 30 November 2015– national climate contributions (called "Intended Nationally Determined 12 December 2015 Contributions", INDCs). These suggested commitments were estimated to limit Location Le Bourget in the global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100.[8] For example, the EU suggested suburbs of Paris, INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to France [9] 1990. The agreement establishes a "global stocktake" which revisits the national Also known COP21 (UNFCCC) [3] goals to "update and enhance" them every five years beginning 2023. However, as CMP11 (Kyoto no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into Protocol) the Paris Agreement – as opposed to the previousKyoto Protocol. Participants Parties to the A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21, including the Bonn UNFCCC Climate Change Conference, 19 to 23 October 2015, which produced a draft Previous 2014 United Nations agreement.[10] event Climate Change Conference Next event 2016 United Nations Contents Climate Change Conference Background Website Venue site Location and participation UNFCCC site Negotiations Outcome Non-binding commitments, lack of enforcement mechanisms Institutional investors' contribution to limiting fossil fuels Declarations of non-state parties Financing Demonstrations See also References External links Background According to the organizing committee of the summit in Paris, the objective of the 2015 conference was to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.[11] Pope Francis published an encyclical called Laudato si' intended, in part, to influence the conference. The encyclical calls for action against climate change: " Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it."[12] The International Trade Union Confederation has called for the goal to be "zero carbon, zero poverty", and its general secretary Sharan Burrow has repeated that there are "no jobs on a dead planet". Global carbon dioxide emissions Location and participation by country in 2015. The location of UNFCCC talks is rotated by regions throughout United Nations China (29.5%) countries. The 2015 conference was held at Le Bourget from 30 November[13] to 11 USA (14.3%) December 2015. EU (9.6%) To some extent, France served as a model country for delegates attending COP21 India (6.8%) because it is one of the few developed countries in the world to decarbonize electricity Russia (4.9%) production and fossil fuel energy while still providing a high standard of living.[14] As Japan (3.5%) of 2012, France generated over 90% of its electricity from zero carbon sources, Other (31.4%) including nuclear, hydroelectric, and wind. The conference took place two weeks after a series of terrorist attacks in central Paris. Security was tightened accordingly, with 30,000 police officers and 285 security checkpoints deployed across the country until after the conference ended.[15] The European Union and 195 nations see( list in reference)[16] were the participating parties. Negotiations The overarching goal of the Convention is to reducegreenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase. Since COP 17 this increase is set at 2 °C (3.6 °F) above pre-industrial levels.[17] However, Christiana Figueres acknowledged in the closing briefing at the 2012 Doha conference: "The current pledges under the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol are clearly not enough to guarantee that the temperature will stay below 2 °C and there is an ever increasing gap between the action of countries and what the science tells us." During previous climate negotiations, countries agreed to outline actions they intended to take within a global agreement, by 1 October 2015. These commitments are known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs.[18] Together, the INDCs would reduce global warming from an estimated 4–5 °C (by 2100) to 2.7 °C, and reduce emissions per capita by 9% by 2030, while providing hope in the eyes of the conference organizers for further reductions in the future that would allow meeting a 2 °C target.[19] Think- tanks such as the World Pensions Council (WPC) The heads of delegations from left to argued that right: Enrique Peña Nieto, François the keys to Hollande, Angela Merkel, Michelle success lay Bachelet. in convincing officials in the U.S. and China, by far the two largest national emitters: "As long as policy makers in Washington and Beijing didn't put all their political capital behind the adoption of ambitious carbon-emission capping targets, the laudable efforts of other G20 governments often remained in the realm of pious wishes. Things changed for the better on 12 November 2014 when President Obama and General Secretary Xi Jinping agreed to limit greenhouse gases emissions."[20] President Obama insisted on America's essential role in that Shows the top 40 CO2 emitting countries and related in the regard: "We've led by example [...] from Alaska to the Gulf world in 1990 and 2012, including per capita figures. The Coast to the Great Plains [...] we've seen the longest streak data is taken from the EU Edgar database. of private job creation in our history. We've driven our economic output to all time-highs while driving our carbon pollution down to its lowest level in nearly two decades. And then, with our historic joint announcement with China last year, we showed it was possible to bridge the old divide between developed and developing nations that had stymied global progress for so long [...] That was the foundation for success in Paris."[21] Outcome COP 21: Heads of delegations. On 12 December 2015, the participating 196 countries agreed, by consensus, to the final[22] global pact, the Paris Agreement, to reduce emissions as part of the method for reducing greenhouse gas. In the 12-page document,[3] the members agreed to reduce their carbon output "as soon as possible" and to do their best to keep global warming "to well below 2 degrees C".[23] In the course of the debates, island states of the Pacific, the Seychelles, but also the Philippines, their very existence threatened by sea level rise, had strongly voted for setting a goal of 1.5 °C instead of only 2 °C.[24][25] France's Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said this "ambitious and balanced" plan was an "historic turning point" in the goal of reducing global warming.[26] However, some others criticized the fact that significant sections are "promises" or aims and not firm commitments by the countries.[27] Non-binding commitments, lack of enforcement mechanisms The Agreement will not become binding on its member states until 55 parties who produce over 55% of the world's greenhouse gas have ratified the Agreement. There is doubt whether some countries, especially the United States,[28] will agree to do so, though the United States publicly committed, in a joint Presidential Statement with China, to joining the Agreement in 2016.[2] Each country that ratifies the agreement will be required to set a target for emission reduction or limitation, called a "nationally determined contribution," or "NDC," but the amount will be voluntary.[29][30] There will be neither a mechanism to force[31] a country to set a target by a specific date nor enforcement measures if a set target is not met.[30][32] There will be only a "name and shame" system[33] or, as János Pásztor, the U.N. assistant secretary-general on climate change, told CBS News, a "name and encourage" plan.[34] Some analysts have also observed that the stated objectives of the Paris Agreement are implicitly "predicated upon an assumption – that member states of the United