Climate Change: Stakeholders Commit To Curb Global Temperatures

After two weeks of horse trading, delegates to the 24th United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change, COP24 in the Polish city of Katowice, on December 16, 2018 agreed a deal to give life in 2020 to the 2015 Paris Agreement. The BBC said last-minute rows over carbon markets had threatened to derail the two-week summit, causing a 24-hour delay to the closing ceremony.

The Katowice Agreement aims to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below 2 degrees Celsius and ensure that countries keep their promises to cut carbon. The summit accord, reached by 196 states, outlines plans for common rules for all countries on how to cut carbon emissions, provide finance to poorer nations and ensure that everyone lives up to their commitments. A deadlock between Brazil and other countries over rules for monitoring carbon credits had threatened to derail the talks.

It should be recalled that the idea of being legally liable for causing climate change has long been rejected by richer nations for fear of huge bills. “Putting together the Paris Agreement work programme is a big responsibility,” said the chairman of the talks, Michal Kurtyka. “It has been a long road. We did our best to leave no one behind,” he added. “We have a system of transparency,...