Climate Change
United Nations Climate Change Conference 2011, Durban, South Africa
For two weeks in November-December 2011 in Durban, South Africa, a United Nations Climate Change Conference was held. What was accomplished at this conference? Will this conference save us from the devastation that climate change will cause us? Below is information from three websites.
Wikipedia.com
“The conference agreed to a legally binding deal comprising all countries, which will be prepared by 2015, and to take effect in 2020. There was also progress regarding the creation of a Green Climate Fund (GCF) for which a management framework was adopted. The fund is to distribute US$100 billion per year to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts.
“While the president of the conference, Mate Nkoana-Mashabane, declared it a success, scientists and environmental groups warned that the deal was not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond 2 °C as more urgent action is needed.”
See more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
New York Times: Climate Talks in Durban Yield Limited Agreement
“The deal on a future treaty renews the Kyoto Protocol, the fraying 1997 emissions agreement that sets different terms for advanced and developing countries, for several more years. But it also begins a process for replacing the Kyoto agreement with something that treats all countries — including the economic powerhouses China, India and Brazil — equally.
“The deal on a future treaty was the most highly contested element of a package of agreements that emerged from the extended talks among 200 nations here.
“The expiration date of the protocol — 2017 or 2020 — and the terms of any agreement that replaces it will be negotiated at future sessions.”
The Guardian: Hope at last at the Durban conference on climate change
“UN climate change conferences don't of themselves cut greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiations about targets and texts cannot do that; only government policies that incentivise and require businessinvestment in low carbon technologies and other emission-reducing activities can.
“So the standard by which UN talks should be judged is whether or not they make such policy and investment more likely or less. And from that perspective the conference that has ended in Durban, South Africa, amid considerable drama, should be regarded as very much a success.
“First, it has forced countries to admit that their current climate policies are inadequate. The Durban agreement explicitly refers to the "emissions gap" – the difference between the aggregate impact of commitments that countries have made, and the upper limit of emissions required to have a chance of meeting the globally agreed goal of no more than two degrees of global warming. That gap is large, and countries have now agreed that their targets will need to be strengthened to try to close it. In doing so Durban has snatched the 2C goal from the jaws of impossibility. It still looks very difficult to achieve, but if more concerted action is now taken early enough, it yet could be.”
See more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/11/durban-conference-climate-change for the rest of the article.
Pope Benedict XVI and the Environment
“Benedict XVI has already earned a reputation as the “green pope” because of his repeated calls for stronger environmental protection, as well as gestures such as installing solar panels atop a Vatican audience hall and signing an agreement to make the Vatican Europe’s first carbon-neutral state.” Click here for more information about this article.
Click here to read the full text of Benedict’s Message on the environment.
Women Religious and reducing Carbon Footprint
The members of The Leadership Congregation of Women Religious (LCWR) have passed a resolution to reduce their carbon footprint.
“Faithful to our calling to foster the interconnectedness of all creation and building on the strength of past resolutions and actions, we, the members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, resolve to take measurable steps to reduce our congregational/community carbon footprint.”
Read more at the Climate Change/Environmental Section of the Social Justice Page of LCWR’s by clicking here. http://www.lcwr.org/lcwrsocialjustice/issues.htm
Books:
Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester Brown Blessed Unrest
by Paul HawkinsOur Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis by Al Gore
Our Choice: How We Can Solve the Climate Crisis (Young Readers Edition),
by Al Gore
Websites:
www.CatholicsandClimateChange.org
www.CatholicClimateCovenant.org
www.InterfaithPowerandLight.org
New York Times article: Carbon Emissions Show Biggest Jump Ever Recorded
