The year 2014 is turning out to be one of the warmest years. It is also an opportunity for 190 nations to speed up their discussions and make a deal on how to limit greenhouse gas emissions and keep the global warming and associated Climate Change within manageable limits.
The US and China have already set new targets and pledges to adhere to it just before the Climate Change conference. China is the first Asian nation to do this and it has brought a fair amount of optimism into the negotiations on Climate Change which will culminate in Paris next year and possibly the adoption of the long-awaited Climate Change pact.
However the biggest stumbling block is emerging economies like India and nations like Japan, Russia, and Australia who are to commit to new limits. Sharper cuts will be needed in the coming decades if the target of keeping the global rise in temperature to 2 degrees is to be achieved. The global temperature has risen by 0.8 degrees C and green house gases are being released every year.
“Human influence on the climate system is clear,” Rajendra Pachauri, who leads the U.N.’s panel of climate-change experts, told delegates at the opening session in Lima on Monday.
If there is to be a decent chance of achieving the targets and keep the warming within the 2 degree limit, the major economies need to slash their emissions of green house gases by 40 to 70% by 2050 and to Zero by the end of the century.
There may be dissensions within the scientific community about the timing of the impending crisis but they are unanimous on one thing- It is not going to be business as usual and something drastic has to be done to meet the goal.
Nauru’s Marlene Moses, representing a group of Pacific island nations threatened by rising seas due to Climate Change said, “We call on the world to ensure the opportunity does not slip away.”
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