Global Impact
Paris
Promise
“There was a real sense that finally the world had woken up to the need for action”
Stephen Cornelius,
chief adviser on climate change
Last December, all eyes were on world leaders at the UN climate conference in Paris. The outcome – a ground-breaking agreement from nearly 200 countries – was an unprecedented milestone in the world’s determination to tackle climate change. Our chief adviser on climate change, Stephen Cornelius, was there...
There were tears; there were cheers. When the end came, it was pretty emotional – as you might expect when nearly 2,000 passionate people in a huge room share a feeling that they’ve achieved something really positive for the planet. After two weeks of working flat out, we realised we’d all played our part in securing an agreement from the world on ways to tackle climate change.
The outcome was by no means perfect – for starters, there’s still a substantial shortfall between what countries are promising and what’s needed to keep temperature rise to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C” (that’s the wording in the agreement). But there was a real sense that finally the world had woken up to the need for action. And the level of ambition in the agreement was greater than we’d anticipated at the start of the two-week conference – and way better than most people expected just a year earlier.
So, how did it happen?
Well, it relied on incredible diplomatic effort from our French hosts. And it was the result of a lot of political momentum – with many high-level people recognising Paris was going to be a key moment for commitment. Throughout the year, every week or so another big nation had come forward with a climate-related pledge – stating what it would do by 2025 or 2030. Some were ambitious; some less so. But they all added up to something meaningful.
And of course it was all backed up by the overwhelming sense that the world was watching. That feeling had been built up over the year thanks to huge campaigning activities such as the climate march that WWF was part of in November, where 785,000 of you took to the streets worldwide in the biggest climate mobilisation ever.
For many of us, those two weeks in Paris were just the tip of the iceberg. This was the 10th climate conference I’d been to, and it was the culmination of four years focusing on ways to make the most of the opportunity that this Paris summit presented – including ways to secure the ‘fair, ambitious and transformational’ deal that WWF was campaigning for.
The result does indeed provide a positive step toward a cleaner, renewable future. And, vitally, it sets out aims to protect vulnerable places and people – those who have the least capacity to adapt. It may not have solved climate change, but it’s put us on the right track.
I think in 10 or 20 years’ time people are going to look back and say Paris was an important part of the journey to a low-carbon world. People will say this is where 1.5°C came in, and this is where adaptation was given equal credence with mitigation. It’s hard to say so soon after it, but it feels like it was a big deal.
And now the talking’s done, it’s time for action by all governments. We at WWF will be doing all we can to make sure they make good on their commitments, and that the inspiring momentum we generated in Paris isn’t lost.