COP21: Climate Change Agreement Adopted

On 12 December, delegates from 195 different countries, gathered at the COP21 climate change summit in Paris, adopted an agreement by which all countries vow to cut their carbon emissions. 

Renewable energy plays the key role in reaching the main goal, which is to limit the increase in average temperature to below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C, which would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.

“The Paris Agreement sends a clear signal to investors, businesses, and policy-makers that the global transition to clean energy is here to stay and resources have to shift away from polluting fossil fuels,” the European Commission stated.

One of the agreement’s key points is to enhance deployment of renewable energy systems in developing countries. USD 100 billion (approx. EUR 91 billion) a year will be made available for developing countries to combat climate change by 2020, which will be “a floor for post-2020”. “A new quantified target will need to be set by 2025 at the latest,” said the President of COP21, Laurent Fabius.

Responding to the announcement of the agreement reached at the COP21 United Nations climate change talks in Paris, RenewableUK’s Chief Executive, Maria McCaffery, said: ““We hope that in the months to come we can see this accord translated into the necessary policies at home to achieve these goals, with Ministers returning from the talks fired up to put their weight fully behind the development of the UK’s plentiful renewable energy resources, including wind, wave and tidal power, without the Government seeking to exclude successful and cost-effective technologies such as onshore wind from our energy mix.”

Before it goes into effect, each country will have to ratify the Paris Agreement.

Offshore WIND Staff