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Remar Apao DocorI. Introduction

Climate change is considered to be a critical global challenge and recent events have demonstrated the worlds growing vulnerability to climate change. The impacts of climate change range from affecting agriculture to further endangering food security, to rising sea-levels and the accelerated erosion of coastal zones, increasing intensity of natural disasters, species extinction and the spread of vector-borne diseases.

Climate change is about the growth of greenhouse gas emissions due to the burning of fossil fuels, resulting mainly from industrial activities and motor transportation, hence there is a buildup of the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide build up is made worse by the increasing loss of forests, which act as carbon sinks that absorb gases and prevent its release into the atmosphere. Further, the increase of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere also enhances the Greenhouse Effect (in which more heat is generated), thus leading to temperatures rising. Based on data from the UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it is estimated that the mean global surface temperature has increased by about 0.3 to 0.6 degree Celsius since the late 19th century to the present, and an increase of 0.2 to 0.3 degree over the last 40 years. A significant rise in temperature can trigger several events, such as melting of the ice sheets, the death of some significant marine life and other biodiversity, and effects on agriculture and human health.

II. United Nations Climate Change Conference,COP 21orCMP 11The2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference,COP 21orCMP 11was held inParis, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of theConference of the Parties(COP) to the 1992United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997Kyoto Protocol.

The conference negotiated theParis Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction ofclimate change, the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it. The agreement will become legally binding if joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions.Such parties will need to sign the agreement in New York between 22 April 2016 (Earth Day) and 21 April 2017, and also adopt it within their own legal systems (through ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession).

According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks,the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limitingglobal warming to less than 2 degreesCelsius(C) compared to pre-industrial levels. The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenicgreenhouse gasemissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century. In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement,the parties will also "pursue efforts to" limit the temperature increase to 1.5C.[2]The 1.5C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050, according to some scientists.

Prior to the conference, 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions (called "Intended Nationally Determined Contributions", INDCs). These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100. For example, theEU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990.The agreement establishes a "global stocktake" which revisits the national goals to "update and enhance" them every five years beginning 2023.However, no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol.

A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21, including theBonnClimate Change Conference, 19 to 23 October 2015, which produced a draft agreement.

According to the organizing committee of the summit in Paris, the objective of the 2015 conference was to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.[10]Pope Francispublished an encyclical calledLaudato si'intended, in part, to influence the conference. The encyclical calls for action against climate change. TheInternational Trade Union Confederationhas called for the goal to be "zero carbon, zero poverty", and its general secretarySharan Burrowhas repeated that there are "no jobs on a dead planet".

Key role of China and the U.S. Think-tanks such as theWorld Pensions Council (WPC)argued that the keys to success lied in convincing officials in the U.S. and China, by far the two largest national emitters: "As long as policy makers in Washington and Beijing didn't put all their political capital behind the adoption of ambitious carbon-emission capping targets, the laudable efforts of other G20 governments often remained in the realm of pious wishes. Things changed for the better on 12 November 2014 when President Obama and General Secretary Xi Jinping agreed to limit greenhouse gases emissions." PresidentObamainsisted on Americas essential role in that regard: Weve led by example from Alaska to the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains weve seen the longest streak of private job creation in our history. Weve driven our economic output to all time-highs while driving our carbon pollution down to its lowest level in nearly two decades. And then, with our historic joint announcement with China last year, we showed it was possible to bridge the old divide between developed and developing nations that had stymied global progress for so long, that was the foundation for success in Paris.

The location of UNFCCC talks is rotated by regions throughoutUnited Nationscountries. The 2015 conference was held at Le Bourgetfrom 30 November to 11 December 2015.

To some extent, France served as a model country for delegates attending COP21 because it is one of the few developed countries in the world to decarbonizes electricity production and fossil fuel energy while still providing a high standard of living. As of 2012, France generated over 90% of its electricity from zero carbon sources, including nuclear, hydroelectric, and wind.

The conference took place two weeks after aseries of terrorist attacksin central Paris. Security was tightened accordingly, with 30,000 police officers and 285 security checkpoints deployed across the country until after the conference ended.

The overarching goal of the Convention is to reducegreenhouse gasemissions to limit the global temperature increase. Since COP 17 this increase is set at 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels.However,Christiana Figueresacknowledged in the closing briefing at the2012 Doha conference: "The current pledges under the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol are clearly not enough to guarantee that the temperature will stay below 2C and there is an ever increasing gap between the action of countries and what the science tells us."

During previous climate negotiations, countries agreed to outline actions they intended to take within a global agreement, by 1 October 2015. These commitments are known asIntended Nationally Determined Contributionsor INDCs.Together, the INDCs would reduce global warming from an estimated 45 C (by 2100) to 2.7C, and reduce emissions per capita by 9% by 2030, while providing hope in the eyes of the conference organizers for further reductions in the future that would allow meeting a 2C target.

On 12 December 2015, the participating 195 countries agreed, by consensus, to the final global pact, theParis Agreement, to reduce emissions as part of the method for reducing greenhouse gas. In the 12-page document,the members agreed to reduce their carbon output "as soon as possible" and to do their best to keep global warming "to well below 2 degrees C".France's Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said this "ambitious and balanced" plan was a "historic turning point" in the goal of reducing global warming.However, some others criticized the fact that significant sections are "promises" or aims and not firm commitments by the countries.The Agreement will not become binding on its member states until 55 parties who produce over 55% of the world's greenhouse gas have ratified the Agreement. There is doubt whether some countries, especially the United States,will agree to do so.

Each country that ratifies the agreement will be required to set a target for emission reduction, but the amount will be voluntary. There will be neither a mechanism to forcea country to set a target by a specific date nor enforcement measures if a set target is not met. There will be only a "name and shame" systemor, asJnos Psztor, the U.N. assistant secretary-general on climate change, toldCBS News, a "name and encourage" plan.

Some analysts have also observed that the stated objectives of the Paris Agreement are implicitly predicated upon an assumption thatmember states of the United Nations, including high polluters such as China, the US, India, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and Australia, which generate more than half the worlds greenhouse gas emissions, will somehow drive down their carbon pollution voluntarily and assiduously without any binding enforcement mechanism to measure and control CO2 emissions at any level from factory to state, and without any specific penalty gradation or fiscal pressure (for example a carbon tax) to discourage bad behaviour.

Speaking at the5th annual World Pensions Forumheld on the sidelines of the COP21 Summit,Earth InstituteDirectorJeffrey Sachsargued thatinstitutional investorswould eventually divest from carbon-reliant firms if they could not react to political and regulatory efforts to halt climate change: "Every energy company in apension fund's portfolio needs to be scrutinized from purely a financial view about its future, 'Why is this [a company] we would want to hold over a five- to 20-year period?'... If we continue to hold major energy companies that dont have an answer to a basic financial test, we are just gambling. We have to take afiduciaryresponsibility these are not good bets.

Some US policy makers concurred, notablyAl Gore, insisting that "no agreement is perfect, and this one must be strengthened over time, but groups across every sector of society will now begin to reduce dangerous carbon pollution through the framework of this agreement."Declarations of Non-State PartiesAs is usual before such major conferences, major NGOs and groups of governments have drafted and published a wide variety of declarations they intend to seek a consensus on, at the Paris conference itself. These include at least the following major efforts:

ICLEIat its World Congress, launched the newTransformative Actions Program (TAP)intended to progress local and sub national action ahead of COP21 to build on its 2005 COP11 (Montreal summit) commitments,Triple Bottom Lineframework arising from that, and other local efforts.

European capital and large cities for climate action en route to COP 21 Declaration, adopted 26 March 2015 by "representatives of EU capitals and large cities of 28 EU Member States at the Mayors Meeting organized byAnne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, andIgnazio Marino, Mayor of Rome, who argue that "urban areas exposed to climate change are also essential innovation testing zones",which is the focus of the ICLEI mechanisms, metrics and 2005 declaration.

Private, corporate and private-public partnerships

At the World Summit of Regions for Climate (WSRC) in Paris 2014,Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Founder ofR20, invited a coalition of governments, businesses and investors to sign a draft "Paris Declaration" at World Climate Summit in Lima 2014, World Green Economy Summit 2015 in Dubai and COP21.

The Shift projectby French business organizations.

Indigenous peoplesefforts include:

Asian indigenous peoples declaration IPACCacting for African indigenous peoplesin particular but also worldwide

A vast range of groups and peoples "seeking presence in post-2015" development, e.g. the Centre for Autonomy and Development of Indigenous People in Nicaragua

Many indigenous polities and sovereignties seeking recognition under theDeclaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peopleswho demanded recognition and change also in 2014 at the2014 United Nations Climate Change Conferencein Lima.In 2015 this will include those with specific grievances, e.g. theWabanaki Confederacyin its opposition tohydraulic fracturingandEnergy East, has announced it will send a diplomatic representative regarding events in 2013 inNew Brunswickthat highlighted the relative imbalance of power to resistfossil fuelcorporations even on unceded lands:

"Canada is the home to 75% of the worlds [sic] mining corporations, and they have tended to have relative impunity in the Canadian Courts" -Winona LaDuke Women's Earth and Climate Action Networkseeking "powerful submissions by worldwide women" sharing "stories, struggles, solutions and action plans ... [a] women's climate justice mobilization"

Countries of the Mediterranean Sea.Dam Bridge, Strait of Gibraltar, S.A. (PPEGSA). The first draftPresaPuenteadapting to climate change is designed to protect the Mediterranean from the imminent rising waters caused by the polar thaw. More than 24 countries, over 500 million people, more than 15,000 islands and thousands of kilometres of coast which can be saved from flooding.

Solar alliance: Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modiannounced at the 2015 G-20 Summit that he, along with French PresidentFranois Hollande, intends to propose creating an alliance of solar-rich countries similar to theOrganization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC). Ahead of the climate summit, the two leaders sent written invitations to over 100 countries to join the coalition proposed to be called the International Agency for Solar Policy and Application (InSPA). A vast range of other activitiesin preparation to influence the major decisions at the conference.III. Conclusion

According to former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, global warming is the observed and projected increases in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans.It is a complex phenomenon, and its full-scale impacts are hard to predict far in advance. It is bad because in the most likely scenarios, climate change would cause some kind of regional or continental disruption, like a major crop failure; this disruption would cascade through the worlds tightly connected economic and political systems to produce a global effect. It can cause an economically critical region to exhaust its water reserves, forcing people to leave en masse and precipitating a crisis that reverberates through the world economy. Already the severe weather events that have occurred have had major effects on international politics, commodity markets and the stability of various regions. Millions of people have died or been made homeless or lost their livelihoods as a result of these natural disasters.

Global warming is caused by many things. The causes are split up into two groups, man-made and natural causes. One natural cause is a release of methane gas from arctic tundra and wetlands. Methane is a greenhouse gas. A greenhouse gas is a gas that traps heat in the earth's atmosphere. Another natural cause is that the earth goes through a cycle of climate change. Man-made causes probably do the most damage. Pollution is one of the biggest man-made problems. Burning fossil fuels is one thing that causes pollution. Fossil fuels are fuels made of organic matter such as coal, or oil. When fossil fuels are burned they give off a green house gas called CO2. Also mining coal and oil allows methane to escape. When you dig up the fossil fuels you dig up the methane as well. Another major man-made cause of global warming is population. More people mean more food, and more methods of transportation. That means more methane because there will be more burning of fossil fuels, and more agriculture. Another source of methane is manure. Another problem with the increasing population is transportation. More people mean more cars and more cars means more pollution. The main cause of global warming is our treatment of nature

There are many evidences that support global warming. Channels through the Canadian Arctic archipelago that were choked with ice at this time of year two decades ago are now expanses of open water or vast patchworks of tiny islands of melting ice. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and this summer its sea ice is melting at a near-record pace. The sun is heating the newly open water, so it will take longer to refreeze this winter, and the resulting thinner ice will melt more easily next summer. Sixteen years ago the arctic ice pack was 6 to 9 feet thick, hard to imagine it's gone away so quickly. Severe drought, massive storms, both in winter and Summer triggering record floods in North America,China with thousands dead and millions homeless andat risk of diseasefrom unsanitary conditions, unclean drinking water and a lack of food and medical supplies and recorded heat waves in the Northeast United States and Russia.

The effects of global warming are increase of temperature on the earth and rise of sea levels due to thermal expansion of the ocean, in addition to melting of land ice. Amounts and patterns of precipitation are changing, increasing the frequency, duration, and intensity of other extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes. Water security problems are projected to intensify. Other effects of global warming include lower agricultural yields, affecting food security and exacerbate malnutrition, further glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows and species extinctions. As a further effect of global warming, diseases like malaria are returning into areas where they have been extinguished earlier. Endemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrheal disease primarily associated with the changes in the hydrological cycle. Climate change is projected to compound the pressures on natural resources and the environment, associated with rapid urbanization, industrialization and economic development.

It is more likely that the future of our planet is that global warming will worsen because the carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere where it remains for 80 to 200 years. This leads to an increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which in turn causes the average temperature on Earth to rise. The world population will grow, at the same time more and more developing countries will progress their industrialization and as a result they will cause high CO2 emissions.

I look at the presentation as of today, an apparent phenomenon in our planet Earth. The evidences of the effects of global warming showed in the presentation were true and were not a mere exaggeration. It served as a magnifying glass to what our planet Earth looks like at this particular moment. Carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up is very alarming yet we do nothing.

There is indeed a problem and I can help solve the problem in my own way. I live with the false fantasy that individuals determine the future course of events, not the collective actions of billions of people. It is a mindset which leads to inaction and a refusal to acknowledge that we need to help one another and act collectively if we wish to prevent worse disruptions to our climate, our coastal areas, our economies, and even our food supply. It is in our very own interest to induce fundamental changes in our attitude and behavior towards nature. We should reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We should put existing technologies for building cleaner cars and more modern electricity generators into widespread use. I can increase my reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind, sun and geothermal. And we can manufacture more efficient appliances and phase out the decades-old, coal-burning power plants that generate most of our electricity and replace them with cleaner plants. Modesty and humility, admiration and respect for all life on Earth instead of arrogance and haughtiness. The ultimate global warming solution is to behave as part of a larger whole. It impossible to get in perpetual harmony with myself and with the environment if I do not limit my negative footprint to an acceptable level.