Implementation of Paris Agreement collects radically different opinions
23:13
On December 12, five years passed since the adoption of the Paris climate agreement. The SYSTEMIQ report shows that the agreement has a positive effect on global markets and accelerates investments in low-emission energy sources. However, the German association Urgewald argues that recent years have been lost to efforts to save the climate.
"The global long-term goal of the Paris Agreement – achieving climate neutrality by 2050 – has become a benchmark for governments and financial actors. In 2015, world leaders began their journey together. We know that world temperatures and global emissions are still rising, but this report should give us hope that the Paris Agreement is working,” Laurence Tubiana, an architect of the Paris Agreement and now director of the European Climate Foundation (ECF), said.
Does the Paris Agreement work, as argued by the head of the ECF? The authors of another anniversary report – Five Lost Years – developed by the German association Urgewald in cooperation with 18 NGOs, argue that the financial sector continues to provide large-scale financing – as if there was no international climate agreement – for fossil fuel investments.
The authors selected only the 12 most harmful projects related to oil, gas, and coal. Their implementation is not only a threat to the environment, ergo the assumptions of the Paris Agreement, but also – which is equally important – violates the human rights of the inhabitants of local communities, exposes them to loss of health, and brings many other negative consequences for ecosystems.
