What is the Paris Agreement? What does the IPCC do?
What measures are being taken by governments against climate change?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed in 1988 and currently consists of 195 governments and thousands of scientists working together on actions to be taken in regards to climate change. Its objective “is to provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies.” (ipcc.ch)
🔴 2005: The Kyoto convention came into effect and binding target values in regards to greenhouse gas emissions in industrialised countries were determined for the first time.
🔴 2015: The Paris Agreement was formed at the UN-Climate Conference when 197 countries came together. It determines the limit of the global temperature increase: the goal is to keep the global average temperature ‘distinctly’ under 2°C in comparison to pre-industrial levels — 1.5°C are targeted.
🔴 Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the ‘United Nations Climate Change Conference’ has been postponed to 2021. The 26th UN-Climate Change Conference (COP26, Conference of Parties) will take place on 2021 in Glasgow.
The states have to update their NDC (Nationally determined contributions) to reduce emissions, because they are not ambitious enough to even comply with the 2 degree limit.
The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) tracks the “progress towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C” and shows which countries is on track with the Paris Agreement.
Sources:
IPCC, Special Report “Global Warming of 1.5°C”, 2018
UNFCCC(United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), What is the Paris Agreement?