Celebrate, But Cautiously

When representatives of 195 nations reach an accord aiming to save the planet earth—an accord they have been at for the past 18 years—it calls for celebration. It is a significant victory for environmental diplomacy and green campaigning. However, let us not be carried away. Let us also admit severe limitations of this global deal.

It is being claimed that one major achievement of the Paris accord is that nations have agreed to not let global temperature rise above 2°C in comparison with pre-industrial times—and even goes further in declaring a shared aspiration to aim for less than 1.5°C increase. The latter is certainly an achievement insofar as it brings to global attention what the small island nations have been arguing for. These nations, over 40 in number, including countries such as Mauritius, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica, have been arguing that if the global temperature rises above 1.5˚c, their fate is doomed due to rise in sea levels. To stop their revolt coming into the open, the French government got its diplomatic skills into play and managed to insert the aspirational figure of 1.5°C. How­ever, if one looks at the emission reductions that 185 governments of the world have voluntarily agreed to abide by, the global temperature is likely to rise by 2.7°C. Therefore, the insertion of not just the 1.5°C threshold but even the 2°C threshold seems like an act of bad faith. To rebut this criticism, a clause has been added that the agreed emission reduction will be reviewed every five years.