UN Climate Conference in Paris 2015: Press Release
Prof. Franz Josef Radermacher, President of the Senate of Economy International, welcomes the results of the Paris Climate Summit. What was achieved there is a major step forward. Of course, many had hoped for more – but that was not realistic. What has now been achieved represents half the battle on the path toward meeting the 2°C target – and perhaps it may even be possible to stay below it. The current outcome opens up an opportunity for the private sector to deliver the other half. Voluntary climate neutrality and corresponding measures by companies, organizations, and individuals are the key. The World Forest Initiative of the Senate illustrates what now needs to be done.
In a sense, politics has now closed the gap that previously prevented the private sector from truly addressing the issue of climate change. We now have a kind of upper limit for future CO₂ emissions, and that is good news, because it means we can now work toward a defined target. We expect that this agreement will reduce cumulative global CO₂ emissions by around 500 billion tons by 2050 compared to the levels that would have been emitted without the agreement. This is not enough to fully meet the CO₂ target, but it is still significant – roughly half of the total task ahead. And now that we have an upper limit, we know what still needs to be done: approximately another 500 billion tons by 2050. The private sector can achieve this through voluntary programs, provided that political actors support this approach. In particular, the private sector can – and will – voluntarily invest, beyond legal obligations, to retire emission rights and/or to tighten the annual amounts of greenhouse gas emissions available to countries and governments through contractual arrangements or other mechanisms.
The complete press release can be found here.
Image source: Wikimedia
