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Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "Cancun Agreement"

We Will Figure it out Next Year

The fact that the countries of the world come together every year for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss and debate climate change is progress by itself. It is impressive that every year almost every nation sends delegate to this conference to confront together one of the largest challenges of our time in a peaceful manner. However, discussion is only the first step, and it seems that the global community is having a difficult time moving on to step two which is to take action. This struggle is reflected in most of the agreements that the COP comes to by the end of each conference. They restate what they agree on: climate change is occurring, and every nation needs to take some degree of responsibility for it. Then, … Read entire article »

Filed under: Climate Change

Low Expectations Results in Satisfaction

By Christine Burns ’14 Each year when the Conference of the Parties takes place, the world holds its breath, waiting for the delegates to come to an agreement in which all the important nations of the world have cooperated to come up with a plan, a part two to the Kyoto Protocol in which everyone takes part.  Unfortunately, these expectations are too high.  There are too many important parties, with too many different goals.  I cannot say that I find a lot of hope from either the Cancun Agreement or the Copenhagen Accord, but maybe I am simply being too pessimistic.  After reading both documents and reviews of both documents I fail to see enough concrete plans in either one. To start at the beginning, the Copenhagen Accord was inconsequential.   After all … Read entire article »

Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action

What got done?

Both the Copenhagen Accord and the Cancun Agreements, products of COP15 and COP16 respectively, are important documents in climate change negotiations.  They are lacking though.  Neither at any point have anything about what countries need to do to keep the global average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius.  Each document, in its own right, provides some good steps in helping the climate change negotiations move forward, providing different mechanisms to allot financial support and information transfer between the Parties to the Conference.  I understand the need for these mechanisms and they are good things to have come out of the past two Conferences.   These financial and other mechanisms can only help the future Conference of the Parties move forward and make some kind of significant move in addressing climate change.  Again, they … Read entire article »

Filed under: Climate Change, Mosaic Action