Destructing Paris: Analyzing the Cop 21 draft text

The newest Cop 21 draft has several new edits. I am really enjoying this website à http://paristext2015.com/2015/12/1193/ that calls themselves “ Destructing Paris: Analysing the Cop 21 draft text. It has been helping me understand the compact information in the drafts better and what has been changing as edits happen. The differentiated aspects of the mitigation have been narrowed down considerably including policy regarding developing nations. The two options now are

            1. developed countries taking ‘quantified economy wide absolute emission reductions of all greenhouse gases’, and developing countries take ‘diversified enhanced mitigation actions.’ In other words, the developing countries will not have to submit strict targets (and their reporting requirements will be different).

2. Or, all Parties should aim to take quantified economy wide absolute emission reductions over time, with developing countries taking the lead (ie a transition period)

What the website that I have been looking at talks about is how this second option is slightly stricter on developing countries because many developing countries submitted INDC’s do not have emission reduction targets. But, larger emitter developing countries such as China and India have already submitted quantified reductions. So these options may not be that important since China and India would be the ones we are really worried about with these options.

As I read through these drafts and get very confused and have to use websites like the one I listed to help me understand... I feel this comic is very appropriate. 

Obama's speech at Cop 21: OMG he went over 3 min, climate change isn't real

I watched President Obama’s full speech at Cop 21 here is the link-à https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWKy9zN90A

To summarize this is a speech from Obama that all leaders could give. They were technically given 3 min though Obama stretched over that time with about 8 min. In social media I have heard a lot of controversy about him going over time from people commentating on his vide. But, I do not think that controversy is too important as it seems to me people just want something to complain about especially dealing with Obama. His speech seemed to be very motivating with the fact that it kept stressing all nations coming together, helping each other because there is not another choice. He touches on how we are all responsible for this and no nation is immune to the effects of climate change. He says we are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it. I thought this was a very powerful statement because I think it provides an explanation to why there is controversy over climate change. It is hard because our generation can’t look back into history to find a time when our world was the way it is today and seek for help to learn from the past. Instead this is all so new and urgent. In class today Professor Jessy, who just got back from a week at Cop21, said the debate over climate science or how real climate change is was gone at the meeting. It was a widely accepted fact and now it is just down to politics and taking action. Obama talked about how the USA recognizes our role in creating this problem and how we now embrace the responsibility to do something about it. We must deny the enemy of the notion that we can not do anything about climate change. We already are making progress and we need to stick with that and promote globally. We said yes to the first ever national standards of limiting carbon pollution. We are on track for our agreed reduction of emissions from 6 years ago and Obama just made a new target last year. Obama anticipates Cop 21 to give the world hope setting climate targets, setting long term strategies, and helping developing nations.

Going back to what Jessy talked about in class today about how the debate over whether climate change is real is over, instead not it is all about the politics. I thought this cartoon perfectly fit that.

Paris Dec 2nd Clusters & Water Pact!

A few days into the conference and through my skimming of the reports and following the news I have not heard much talk about my research topic public health and infectious diseases. I anticipate talk about it in the coming negotiations, as it is a crucial topic in climate change. But, I have heard a lot about what other clusters in our class are focusing on. The mitigation group met today and discussed several things one being REDD+ which is also what we discussed in class and had a reading on. The technology development and transfer group, within that group I was interested that India called for language on promoting access to technologies. This is something we talked about in class. We discussed how in the subject of climate change it is crucial to make information easily understandable and accessible.

Another important note about today in Paris! The creation of the international Paris Pact on Water and Climate Change Adaption was announced today. This pact is to make water systems more resilient to climate impacts. This pact is huge because it involves a coalition of national and cross-border river basin organizations, governments, funding agencies. Local governments, companies, and civil society. These projects make up over $20 million technical assistance and potentially over $1billion in financing . This is a great start to see some substantial pacts being made in Paris. Gives us hope for the rest of the negotiations!