By Jacob Wieser, DKA
The Conference of Parties Number 21 (COP21) is over. A new global climate agreement has been adopted on Saturday 12 December 2015 - slightly later than expected. The past years have seen tough negotiations, now all governments of the world buy into it. Even the US and Saudi Arabia, who were referred to as blockers.
The global community aims to halt the global temperature rise until the end of the century well below 2 °C and strives for 1.5 which is vital for the survival of millions of coast dwellers. The states acknowledge their mutual moral duty. This is a victory. But the agreement is void of any mechanism for assuring this responsibility. No coercion, no enforcement. Periodic reviews are set to start in 2018. The sum of the national contributions to curb this crisis will lead to a temperature rise of 2.7 degrees or even more.
