As Pope Francis arrives in the United States to address climate change with government officials, activists are optimistic about the global push to limit carbon emissions ahead of talks in Paris.
Jake Schmidt, director of the International Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Tuesday that many countries on the list of top carbon emitters have submitted targets for decreasing emissions. Many scientists cite carbon emissions, typically from the burning of fossil fuels, as the top factor in man-made climate change.
Schmidt said countries that account for 60 percent of the carbon emissions on the planet had submitted proposed targets.
India could announce its targets in the coming days and South Africa and Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest producers of carbon emissions, are expected to finalize their proposed targets by the end of September, he said. Brazil is also in the final stages of finalizing its proposed targets.
“These commitments … will be enshrined in this agreement in some manner, and that’s a big step forward as we move forward with this agreement,” he said.
Representatives from across the globe are expected to bring their plans for reducing carbon emissions in their home countries to Paris, where the United Nations Conference on Climate Change is taking place from Nov. 30-Dec. 11.
This week, Pope Francis is spending time in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. He’s set to speak with President Obama on Wednesday and address a joint session of Congress Thursday, and climate change is expected to be a major topic during both events.
Francis released an encyclical earlier this year calling on world leaders to address climate change, and described it as a moral issue.
There has been some real movement in limiting the potential rise in global temperature, even though some major carbon emitters haven’t released their proposals for Paris, Schmidt said.
Before the Copenhagen conference in 2009, the global temperature was on track to increase 5 degrees Celsius, Schmidt said. Since that conference, the world is now on a 3.5 degree Celsius pathway, he said, and the proposals that have already been released could limit the increase to 2.9 degrees Celsius.
Leaders with the U.N. have stated they want that number to drop to 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 in order to limit the effects of climate change.
Schmidt said one of the keys to getting to that 2 degree Celsius pathway would be when cities, states, provinces and countries across the world see the initial impact of their policies. He believes once officials see energy efficient policies don’t wreck economies, they will be willing to increase their work on limiting carbon emissions.
“The reality is for countries that have proposed targets and, in five years time, have overachieved those targets, they’ll be in a strong position to show that to the world,” he said.
Despite the optimism from Schmidt and the Natural Resources Defense Council, some scientists say the plans being submitted for the Paris conference still won’t be enough to limit emissions to the necessary levels. The Climate Action Tracker, released earlier this month, stated the targets would “lead to global emissions far above the levels needed to hold warming to below 2 (degrees Celsius).”
Shelly Poticha, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Urban Solutions program, said it would be up to the world’s cities to continue the push to make the goals announced in Paris a reality.
Poticha noted 3.8 billion people, about 54 percent of the world’s population, live in cities, which account for more than 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and two-thirds of global energy usage. While countries might come up with the proposals, it will be up to the population centers to make sure they’re reached, she said.
“Cities really bear the brunt of the climate change crisis and its impacts,” she said.
