Climate change is no hoax and no joke. Work wrapped up yesterday in Marrakech, Morocco, where nearly 200 nations participated in the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22) meeting to agree on methods to implement the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. “What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable,” the UN secretary-general said, referring to the record time in which more than 111 countries had ratified the Paris agreement for it to come into effect.
Nearly 80 heads of states or representative ministers attended the high-level meet of the latest round of UN climate change talks, which began on November 7 and will continue till November 18. Amid fears that the United States will pull out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement following Donald Trump’s presidential victory, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that the president-elect will rethink plans to quit the global accord which came into force on November 4. “I hope he will really hear and understand the severity and urgency of addressing climate change…I hope he understands this, listens and evaluates his campaign comments. Ban said, adding that he hoped Trump would change his opinion that man-made climate change was a hoax. “This momentum is irreversible – it is being driven not only by governments, but by science, business and global action of all types at all levels,” adds the Proclamation. “Our task now is to rapidly build on that momentum, together, moving forward purposefully to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to foster adaptation efforts, thereby benefiting and supporting its Sustainable Development Goals" Last December at the previous Conference, known as COP 21 196 Parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement, so-named after the French capital where it was approved. It aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Photo courtesy of the United Nations (un.org).
