COP21_final4

COP21

Activism, Campaigns, Climate Change, Environmental Law, NGOs, Renewables

COP21 WEEK 2 WRAP UP

Catch up on this week’s biggest climate and COP21 news
BY AJ Staff on

More in Activism:

We’re in the final stretch of the Paris climate change summit and COP21 negotiators are in a race with time as they try and finalize an agreement. The deadline for a universal agreement endorsed by all 195 signatories is looming and failure is not an option.

We’re in the final stretch of the Paris climate change summit and COP21 negotiators are in a race with time as they try and finalize an agreement. The deadline for a universal agreement endorsed by all 195 signatories is looming and failure is not an option.

COP21 agreement:

  • The latest version of the draft agreement, as of December 10 can be found here.
  • To help with understanding some of the climate jargon in the draft agreement read Scientific American’s guide to speaking like a climate change negotiator.
  • Deconstructing Paris has analyzed the summarized the updated draft agreement. The draft has been reduced to 27 pages with around 50 square brackets.
  • BBC has outlined the “sticking points” of the agreement, which include finance, differentiation and overall target goal. For live updates on the agreement, visit BBC’s COP21 Live: Final push for climate deal.
  • Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister and COP21 president, remains optimistic about the agreement but has announced that he will present the agreement on Saturday morning.

COP21 and Canada:

  • Environment and Climate Change Minister, Catherine McKenna has announced her support in ensuring that global average temperature does not rise beyond 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels.
  • Ken Smith, a Suncor mechanic from Fort McMurray, Alberta, spoke at COP21 urging Canada to make the transition from fossil fuels smooth for oil sand workers.
  • Canada, alongside the United States, has been awarded with the Fossil of the Day by the Climate Action Network for “for refusing to support a discussion on compensating poor countries vulnerable to natural events caused by climate change.”

COP21 and the world:

  • The target of limiting global average temperature rise by 1.5 degrees has been endorsed by Australia and the United States.
  • Financing remains a crucial aspect of the agreement with developing nations calling for more financial support from developed countries beyond their collective pledge of $100 billion.
  • US secretary of State, John Kerry remains optimistic but voices his concerns with some aspects of the draft agreement in the especially in regards to financing. 
  • Venezuela and Saudi Arabia were given the Fossil of the Day Award on Day 6 of COP21 for contradictory statements regarding their opposition to decarbonisation but support of stabilizing green house gases.

Here’s what A\J posted this week:

  • COP21 Week 1 Wrap – Catch up on last week’s biggest climate and COP21 news.
  • A Love Letter from the Earth -Hundreds attended the Earth to Paris summit, a gathering of activists, scientists and business leaders in connection with COP21
  • ExxonMobil on Trial – Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein host mock trial of ExxonMobil for crimes of deception
  • Everything is at Stake for Canada’s Youth – The Canadian Youth Delegation at United Nations climate change negotiations are fighting for more than selfies with the Prime Minister.
  • A\J’s message to COP21 – Climate change is at our doorstep. Please keep working until we’ve got a meaningful final agreement that serves all interests.

Keep visiting ajmag.ca/COP21 as your go-to source for climate and COP21 coverage and follow us on Twitter for live and on-the-ground coverage from Paris.