Conclusion of COP21

So you may or may not have heard about COP21 (Conference of the Parties 21). It dominated the news over the last two weeks... why? For the past 20 years, all the countries in the world have met annually to discuss anthropogenic (man induced) climate change. This year, the meeting was held in Paris, with an impressive turn out, Barack O'bama being one.

This year it was all about reducing carbon emissions, so that the Earths' global temperature does not increase by 2°C, by the end of this century. NASA's Earth Observatory claims that the Earth has increased in temperature by 0.8°C since 1880- beginning of the industrial revolution, and is only continuing to increase; I'm sure you've seen all the news articles about 2015 being the hottest year on record, according to the United Nations' weather agency.

The line plot shows yearly temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2014. All four records show rapid warming in the past few decades, and all show the last decade as the warmest.

It's important for us to do something about this now, because if we carry on increasing the temperature, the repercussions are pretty bad....

• Wildfires will increase by 400-800% in the U.S
• The intensity of hurricanes will increase 2-8%
• Many different species will most likely become extinct, around 20-30% of species
• Marine life will decrease as a result of ocean acidification, and coral bleaching
• The Arctic will continue to melt- around 30% of the sea ice will be lost, increasing sea levels by as much as 10 feet
• Freshwater availability will fall by 20%
• Crops in the U.S, Africa and India will decrease up to 30% meaning the global food supply will decrease

(All sourced from The National Academy of Sciences)

Fortunately, this year it was taken quite seriously, with a great outcome. All countries have agreed that we need to start reducing emissions significantly, and to have an outcome of a temperature increase no more than 1.5°C by 2100. £100 billion dollars a year will be given to developing countries to help finance sustainable and environmentally friendly forms of energy.
By the second half of this century, "in accordance with best available science" the world should be able to reach a point where greenhouse emissions will be zero! (That's VERY positive thinking!). 186 countries, including the U.S and China have pledged to stop the growth of greenhouse emissions, by reducing the burning of fossil fuels- a pledge that must be renewed every five years.

It's not going to be easy to make sure we don't hit this increase. Realistically, we will have to reduce greenhouse emissions to a cut of 90% by 2050 if we want to reach this goal, according to Jennifer Morgan, global director of the climate program at the World Resources Institute. Many argue that this is highly ambitious, if not impossible. Some say that we need to increase the 'allowed' temperature rise to 3°C. But the reality is, we need a sense of urgency in order to get this change rolling.