A delegation of UA faculty and staff participated in the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, part of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
More than 50,000 people, including leaders of almost 200 countries, attended, President Barack Obama among them. Their ambition? To set goals and agreements—for countries and for the planet—that reduce the risks of climate change.
During two weeks of intense negotiation, COP21 participants hashed out the details of how their 195 countries would address climate change.
The resulting Paris Agreement, a historic global pledge to limit greenhouse gas emissions, includes many elements designed to help the world reduce emissions and help the vulnerable adapt to climate change. It also sets an important threshold. The world’s nations agreed to keep the global average temperature increase to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, with a long-term goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C.
