This is good news! All the countries have agreed to move ahead with an historic climate change agreement. In a literally world-changing deal that was almost unthinkable just a year ago, some two hundred leading nations unanimously embraced a plan that will leave most of the world’s fossil fuels unburned. As part of a concerted effort…
Um, this is a statement of intent, just like the other climate agreements. There are no legally binding targets. There are no carbon taxes, which lower greenhouse gas levels much more effectively than horsetrading carbon credits. The reduction in coal use is pretty much entirely due to an economic slowdown in China and could easily ramp right back up again.
That said, it is a much better statement of intent than what’s gone before. Maybe, perhaps, countries will hold themselves to it more than before. Maybe we’ll get one hundredth of the action we need on this slow motion disaster. Something is better than nothing.
http://www.vox.com/2015/12/15/10172238/paris-climate-treaty-conceptual-breakthrough