Waco Friends of Peace/Climate at COP21

The Waco Friends of Peace/Climate was represented at COP21 in Paris, December 2015, by two members, Alan Northcutt and Ana Ria.  The members attended the public lectures, panel discussions, film screenings and exhibits.  Our members were inspired by the expertise and enthusiasm of the 40,000 climate activists present. 

In addition, Northcutt and Ria witnessed the COP observances throughout the City, including the sculpture of melting icebergs at the Pantheon.  They participated in a protest of the Louvre art-washing of fossil fuel companies in the front courtyard of the museum. 

  

The Paris Agreement, which was signed by 195 nations on December 12, provides a framework for our battle to maintain global temperature increase to less than 2°C:

• Reaffirm the goal of limiting global temperature increase well below 2°C, while urging efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C;
• Establish binding commitments by all parties to make “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs), and to pursue domestic measures aimed at achieving them;
• Commit all countries to report regularly on their emissions and “progress made in implementing and achieving” their NDCs, and to undergo international review;
• Commit all countries to submit new NDCs every five years, with the clear expectation that they will “represent a progression” beyond previous ones;
• Reaffirm the binding obligations of developed countries under the UNFCCC to support the efforts of developing countries, while for the first time encouraging voluntary contributions by developing countries, too;
• Extend the current goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year in support by 2020 through 2025, with a new, higher goal to be set for the period after 2025;
• Extend a mechanism to address “loss and damage” resulting from climate change, which explicitly will not “involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation”;
• Require parties engaged in international emissions trading to avoid “double counting”; and
• Call for a new mechanism, similar to the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, enabling emission reductions in one country to be counted toward another country’s NDC.

Email to anorthc@aol.com to be placed on the Friends of Peace email list.