Guide to the Paris Climate Summit, COP21

We all know by now that there is a Climate Change Summit happening right now in Paris with leaders from all over the world. But what really is happening, and what are the goals of the Paris Climate Summit that is also being referred to also as COP21? We have put together this handy guide that lays out some of the major facets of what is going on, and what is being accomplished. 1. The Basic Facts

• The summit is 12 days long spanning from Monday November 30^th through Friday December 11^th, taking place just outside of Paris, France.
• What is “COP21” and what does it stand for? COP stands for Conference of Parties – an annual meeting led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The first COP was held in Berlin in 1995.

2. Major goals of the summit:

• Create plan to keep the Earth from warming 2 degrees Celsius with a baseline of pre-industrial temperatures. Climate scientists have pointed out that any warming beyond this will have catastrophic effects.

• Create legally binding terms between world governments to achieve the above mentioned.

3. The last 20 years of annual U.N. Climate Summits have been largely unproductive in terms of resulting in agreed upon actions to combat climate change. Why is this year different?

• China and the United States, the world’s top producing nations of greenhouse gas emissions have showed strong will to be committed to reducing their respected carbon footprints – despite the U.S. Congress’ strong stance against these efforts.

• 150 heads of states and governments from around the world are in attendance. This is the most amount of global leaders to attend a U.N. Climate Summit, showing how the world is actually taking climate change seriously…for once.

4. Clean energy discussions at the Summit:

• Mission Innovate: Led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Missions Innovate brings together 20 nations committing to invest in clean energy solutions. Read the joint statement here.
• India and France launch the Solar Energy Alliance: Over 120 countries have joined the alliance to show their support and dedication to increasing the use of solar energy in their countries. More here.

5. To keep up with the negotiations through the remainder of the Summit, check out the official UNFCCC website, or follow the UN Climate Action official twitter handle. You can also follow our social media channels for regular updates on what is happening in Paris as we will continually update what is happening. https://www.facebook.com/mysunshare/ https://twitter.com/mySunShare