Geopolitics take time. Imagine the months of negotiations at your local school board or city council and multiply that by all the nations of the United Nations. Then, remember that the agreements they hammer out don’t take force unless they’re hammered again at the national and local levels. That’s why people across the globe are frustrated. That’s why people are demanding action, not just talk, as climate disruptions are already upon us. The latest round of international negotiations just ended with some results, but definitely more waiting.
Lima’s 12-day United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol ended last Friday. There were196 parties more or less agreeing to get drafts of their “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” (INDCs) to mitigate the consequences of climate change ready for another meeting this February. The hope is for a draft text of the commitments countries intend to make that will hold global temperature-rise below the 2º C level. That level has been internationally-agreed upon to avoid catastrophic consequences. The universal treaty would then be finalized and adopted at the 2015 Paris meeting and finally go into force in 2020.
It all takes time, but how much time do we have? The Kyoto Protocol extended a 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) intended to commit State Parties to reduce greenhouse gases. It was adopted on December 11, 1997 and entered into force in 2005. Hopefully there will be something more substantial taking force by 2020, but that’s 28 years since the UNFCCC.
In the meantime, let’s hope individuals, local governments, city-states and nations keep doing what they can to mitigate climate change on their own. Or as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon noted, “The more we delay the more we will pay.”
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http://unfccc.int/2860.php