COP21 begins – climate agreement expected
The 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began in Paris. The Conference is attended by representatives of 196 Parties, including representatives of the Republic of Serbia. More than 50 000 attendees are expected including govenment representatives, as well as representatives of interantional and regional institutions and CSOs.
Leaders event was the starting point of the Conference, and more Heads of State/Government attended than any other conference in the history, and they took a “family picture“.
The expectations are that at this conference a global agreement on climate will be reached which should provide directives for further binding reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adaptation to changed climate conditions post 2020. According to the proposed agreement every country should adopt an obligation to reduce GHG in accordance with its own capabilities and national circumstances.
In other words, the expectations are that at this conference a global agreement on climate will be reached which should provide directives for further binding reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adaptation to changed climate conditions post 2020. According to the proposed agreement every country should adopt an obligation to reduce GHG in accordance with its own capabilities and national circumstances.
The aim of this binding agreement, the first of its kind in over 20 years of climate change negotiations under the auspices of the UN, is to limit global warming to under 2°C.
Conference is also attended by the delegation of the Republic of Serbia, led by President Tomislav Nikolić who addressed the delegates today. In his speech President Nikolić has said:
“Estimates have shown that in my country alone damages caused by extreme climate conditions and weather disasters since the year 2000 have amounted to over 5 billion Euro. Catastrophic floods, the scale of which had not been seen in the last 120 years, and which last year had severely affected Serbia, had endangered the lives, health and property of over a million and six hundred thousand people.
This is one more out of the numerous reasons that Serbia, despite being classed as a developing country, has undertaken neccessary measures, in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, at the national level to support its aims. I will remind you that Serbia has submitted its plans for green house gas emissions in June this year. Thus, we have been amongst the first ten countries in the world and the first country in our region which has officially submitted our Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.“
Christiana Figueres, the UNFCCC executive secretary, said that never before a responsibility so great been in the hands of so few. “The world is looking to you,” she said. “The world is counting on you.”
Statements made during the Leaders Event can be found at unfccc.int
In the technical part of the conference the negotiating team of the Republic of Serbia is led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, while the representatives of the Ministry of Mining and Energy are members of Serbian delegation as well.
INDCs are baseline for achievement of the main goal of the Conference, as well as for climate change mitigation. Due to that, UNFCCC Secretariat prepared the “Synthesis report on the aggregate effect of the intended nationally determined contributions“. More than 150 Parties submitted their INDCs, and they are online available.
