The writer is an award-winning environmental journalist. She holds an MA in Environment and Development from SOAS in London
This year is an important one for the global climate change negotiations; at the end of 2015, France will be hosting the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), otherwise known as the Paris 2015 Conference. This will be one of the biggest international climate conferences ever held and the stakes are high: we need to contain global warming that is threatening our world. The Paris Conference needs to result in the adoption of an international agreement, setting the framework for a transition towards a resilient, low-carbon world.
An expected 20,000 delegates and observers will be hosted by France under the auspices of the United Nations in November/December this year, including a delegation from Pakistan led by our new Minister for Climate Change. As the host, France will act as a facilitator between all stakeholders in the negotiations, to help the convergence of varied points of view and permit the adoption of an agreement by consensus.
This conference needs to move the global negotiations forward towards the future international agreement that will enter into force in 2020 to limit carbon emissions. Ideally, it should be respectful of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (all countries are not equally responsible for climate change) and sufficiently ambitious to meet the 2°C goal (limiting global warming to below 2°C by the end of this century), with common, legal rules. Already, the alarming consequences of climate change can be seen: severe weather events are increasingly frequent, ecosystems and biodiversity are under threat and the number of people displaced by climate change continues to rise.
As the host of this crucial conference that might well decide the future of the world as we know it, all eyes will be on the type of leadership France will provide. Luckily, a world-renowned climate specialist, Laurence Tubiana, has already been appointed as France’s special representative and she will be at the helm of the 2015 conference.
France is now mobilising its embassies and missions abroad to encourage participation from every country of the world. The embassy of France in Islamabad is preparing a series of events around climate change and the Paris Conference throughout 2015 with the help of the United Nations Information Centre and the Centre for Climate Research and Development (CCRD) at the COMSATS Institute for Information Technology in Islamabad. The CCRD was recently set up to carry out research on the impacts of climate change in Pakistan.
On June 6, the UN is hosting a planetary debate on climate change across 100 countries, including Pakistan, in which 100 civil society members will gather and will be asked specific questions about climate change (the same questions will be asked all over the world). The event will be highly publicised to raise awareness about climate change and the upcoming Paris Conference.
To ensure that the voices of Pakistani youth will be heard at COP21, essays and drawings are being collected from various schools around the country which will be compiled into a publication that will be distributed at the Paris Conference. We all must do our bit so that the Paris Conference is a success. Scientists are already telling us that time is running out. The world is burning through its carbon budget so quickly that we will lock in 2°C of temperature rise in the next 30 years unless we change course now.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2015.
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