The 12th of December 2015 is considered a milestone in global climate policy, as the international community agreed on that day on the Paris Climate Agreement. The centrepiece of the agreement is limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. A look at current developments suggests that the milestone seems to be crumbling ten years on. Nevertheless, experts speaking to ORF.at reckon its significance should by no means be underestimated.
"I see the room, the reaction is positive, I hear no objections," said then French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, as he sealed the agreement at the UN Climate Conference (COP21) in Le Bourget near Paris with a hammer strike amid cheering. All 195 countries had previously endorsed the agreement unanimously. Those present at the time point to an extraordinary sense of optimism and the great diplomatic skill of the French COP presidency.
One of them was climate law expert Oliver Ruppel. He describes it to ORF.at as a "magical moment", since the decision had been preceded by long and very difficult negotiations. This had shown the world that it wanted to "pull together", said Ruppel. Climate researcher Helga Kromp-Kolb says of the agreement to ORF.at: "It was the first time there was a real commitment, shared by everyone, about where we actually want to go."
Limiting warming to 1.5 up to a maximum of two degrees as the goal
Unlike the preceding Kyoto Protocol of 1997, the Paris Climate Agreement does not set binding national targets. The signatory states are meant to determine their own contributions to implementing the agreement.
Read everything about it at: Pariser Abkommen: Meilenstein der Klimapolitik am Bröckeln - news.ORF.at
Oliver Ruppel
The head of the Research Centre for Climate Protection Law at the University of Graz served as a coordinating lead author in the 5th assessment report of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the scientific basis for the Paris Agreement. He was a guest at the 26th Styrian Climate and Energy Forum.
Helga Kromp-Kolb
The renowned Austrian climate researcher worked as a professor at the Institute of Meteorology and Climatology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) and is a member of Scientists for Future. She is a founding member and board member of the Climate Change Centre Austria.
