Within the past three months tremendous strides have been made toward protecting our earth. The People’s Climate March drew hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of New York City to advocate for climate action. The Keystone XL pipeline failed to pass the U.S. Senate. The United States and China passed a joint agreement to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.
This week there is great hope that progress will continue.
Over a thousand diplomats from 190 countries are meeting in Lima, Peru for a United Nations summit meeting to draft an agreement intended to stop the global rise of planet-warming greenhouse gases. After more than two decades of failed attempts to draw consensus on international climate regulations, many are hopeful that this 19th conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Lima will serve as a necessary step toward regulating greenhouse gases worldwide and supporting climate adaptation in the world’s vulnerable countries.
The Lima conference is seen as the last-stop in a series of slow moving international conversations leading up to the 2015 UNFCCC conference, which will happen next December in Paris. The ultimate goal of this climate-focused body of the United Nations, which has met for nearly two decades, is to have the nations of the world sign a landmark climate change agreement that drastically reduces greenhouse gas emissions country-by-country.
With Paris a year away, Lima is being called a hopeful stepping stone in this process.
Each year, the conference sees the same story: the biggest polluters, like the US, say they need developing countries like China on board; developing countries say that developed countries need to do our fair share, and everyone looks to the US to be a leader. So far, there’s been a lot of disappointment. But this year, things are different. Running off of momentum provided by the United States and China, many hope that the Lima conference will push other countries such as India, Japan, Russia and Australia to pledge carbon emission restrictions that work for each individual country.
"This [The U.S. - China agreement] sends an important signal for the rest of the world to come forward as early as possible with their own contributions," EU negotiator Elina Bardram told the Associated Press.
Other negotiators agree that the leadership of the United States and China has created great potential energy for the Lima conference.
"The prospects are so much better than they’ve ever been," said Felipe Calderón, the former president of Mexico and chairman of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, in a recent New York Times article.
The energy is there. But will leaders follow through?
Kaeley McEvoy is Campaigns Assistant for Sojourners.
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