Climate Change: Developing Countries Bear The Brunt After COP24

The Paris Agreement was reviewed during the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) that took place in Katowice, Poland from December 12-15. The agreement reached in Paris, France in 2015 had it that world leaders will make sure global warming stays below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. They also agreed to pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

This year marked the deadline agreed by signatories of Paris Agreement to adopt an operational manual for the implementation of the commitments made in 2015. In that direction, over 23,000 delegates from some 190 countries had to agree on a rulebook on how to enforce global action to limit further warming of the planet. Though countries agreed on the manual, they argued on how to recognise the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on 1.5C, online reports say. According to Carbon Brief news website, the final outcome of the summit included “hints at the need for more ambitious climate pledges before 2020, leaving many NGOs disappointed at the lack of more forceful language.”

The Center for Science and Environment, an India-based think tank which was closely tracking the negotiations said the Rulebook is completely insufficient to drive ambitious climate action. It described it as weak, arguing that in the Paris Agreement, developed countries had agreed to a financial commitment of US $100 billion each year by 2020. At Katowice, rules on financial contributions by developed countries have been...