Finally, an accord to save the planet and its people

When I stepped out of my home for a leisurely Saturday afternoon, I felt a surprising delight to see several people dressed in light clothes with only a few wearing jackets, and kids frolicking around joyfully in the park. After all, in the wake of a cold stretch of the last few days, it was a lovely weekend under a mild winter sunshine. When I got into my car, I curiously read on the meter screen that the outside temperature was 72 degrees in Fahrenheit. For a moment it gave me a Sci-Fi movie scare – it is almost mid-December and the temperature is in the 70s. Is our planet warming so quickly that a December afternoon looks like an early summer day? Where are we headed? But thankfully radio came to my rescue instantly, as the NPR reported that representatives of nations at the Paris climate conference had agreed to a landmark agreement on joint action toward curbing emissions and stemming the rise of temperature.

Nevertheless that kind of wake-up experience in the blessed climate of Washington metro area pales into complete obscurity in the face of climate disasters that have struck several parts of the world. Many countries in the Far East, South Asia and Europe have lost lives and livelihoods to unprecedented and unseasonal flooding. Melting of glaciers, tsunamis and frequent earthquakes are other catastrophes that have alarmed scientific minds and Nature lovers. Even, in the United States, California has gone through an unusually long period of drought. A new Stanford University study in March found that dry spell in California is linked to rising temperature

But the outcome of the Paris conference is a cause of relief on many counts. Citizens, climate scientists, students and far-sighted political leaders around the world are greeting the news with a sigh of relief as it is for the first time that nations have signed on an accord to save the planet from climate degradation.

Finally, the world appears to be mindful that it would take a strong commitment by all countries to materialize climate improvement objectives.

Under the agreement – that resulted Saturday from two weeks of negotiations – 195 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) vow to curb emissions, strengthen resilience and take common climate action.

The countries have agreed to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.

“The Paris Agreement is a monumental triumph for people and our planet,”United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a tweet.

Photo Credit : Robert A Rohde for Global Warming Art. Being used under GNU Free License via Creative Commons

Saturday’s adoption of the agreement, the UN chief says,  “sets the stage for progress in ending poverty, strengthening peace and ensuring a life of dignity and opportunity for all.”

According to a UN report, when gaveling the agreement with a green hammer, the French Foreign Minister and President of COP21 Laurent Fabius announced the historic news—it created a moment that was “greeted with loud applause and cheers, as the room stood up. Many delegates hugged, while others had tears in their eyes.”

An important aspect of the agreement is establishment of a review mechanism whereby every five years, beginning in 2018, Parties will regularly review what is needed in line with science.

“When historians look back on this day, they will say that global cooperation to secure a future safe from climate change took a dramatic new turn here in Paris,” Mr. Ban stated.

“Today, we can look into the eyes of our children and grandchildren, and we can finally say, tell them that we have joined hands to bequeath a more habitable world to them and to future generations.”

Addressing the hundreds of delegates, Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, said “we did it in Paris.”

“We have made history together. It is an agreement of conviction. It is an agreement of solidarity with the most vulnerable. It is an agreement of long-term vision, for we have to turn this agreement into an engine of safe growth,” she exclaimed.

On another level, the unity exhibited by countries – rich and developing, Easters and Western, large and small – in Paris is also profoundly relevant in emanating the message that if nations strive together, the world can overcome obstacles like terrorism and injustice for the goal of peaceful coexistence and sustainable development of all parts of the world.

The United Nations and Paris participants deserve congratulations for giving this message of fraternity, after centuries of irresponsible things human beings have done to earth.

But the world is challenged on many other fronts. Innocent citizens in Paris and San Bernardino have lost their lives to the menace of terror , as indeed have thousands of people in Syria, Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan and Pakistan to various forms of terror. Millions more have been killed in African conflicts.

It will be both appropriate and imperative that the world body now also take lead in addressing some of the key causes of conflicts, terrorism, social inequality, economic deprivation and growing disparities between nations for progress toward a peaceful world. Skeptics might see it a case of asking too much of a bitterly divided world, but liberty and equality for all should follow as logical goals after the unique display of fraternity in Paris.

FEATURED IMAGE at the top shows Greenpeace activists, demanding 100% renewable energy at Climate March 2015 in Madrid. Photo Credit: OsvaldoGago via CreativeCommons.