Articles Comments

Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "COP17"

High Expectations for Durban

The continuous challenge of global climate change involves a collective and comprehensive effort on an international level to reach significant decisions that could potentially address the dangerous effects of global warming.  The UNFCCC annually performs an attempt to reach agreements over climate regulation.  The Conference of the Parties (COP) comes together every year to promote negotiation, cooperation, and ultimately, progress against the effects of climate change.  Most recently, COP-16 in Cancun, Mexico reached a number of agreements and attempts for regulation. Overall, the conference in Cancun was relatively successful in maintaining a mutual, collective effort toward reducing emissions, promoting sustainable development, and concurring with a common goal of keeping the average global temperature rise below 2° Celsius (http://cancun.unfccc.int/cancun-agreements/significance-of-the-key-agreements-reached-at-cancun/#c45).  The many objectives for COP-16 included a wide range of goals: Establish clear objectives … Read entire article »

Filed under: Summer Reading Responses

Learning to Compromise

In roughly nine short weeks, the students of the Climate Change Africa Mosaic will be attending the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  As this event draws nearer, it’s time we figure out exactly what goes on throughout this important meeting.  Negotiations, political discussions, and potential solutions are all things what we should have a firm understanding of before we attend the conference. As an aide to this understanding, last week, we participated in the World Climate simulation exercise.  Each person was a representative of a Developed Nation, Rapidly Developing Nation, or Developing Nation; for example, I represented South Africa, in the Rapidly Developing Nations category.  Each category was provided with a chart, in which we imputed our expectations for CO2 emission … Read entire article »

Filed under: Summer Reading Responses