Earlier this month (7-18th), COP 22, CMP 12 and CMA 1 to the UNFCCC were held in Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco. Taking this opportunity, I really want to share the two major works relevant for ice melting done by the United Nations (UN) last year, since I had an internship at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) China office this summer.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
At the end of September, 2015, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted during General Assembly of the United Nations, in which the Goal 13 was defined as “Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*”. 5 targets were set up in order to achieve the goal. Mitigating ice melting was a key motivation to set up this goal, as sea ice extent at Arctic has decreased over the last several decades, as well as ice will continually melt within this century as a result of global warming.
Paris Agreement
Paris Agreement aims to arrange how to combat climate change globally after 2020. The agreement was adopted on COP21 in Paris on 12 December 2015, and was opened to sign on 22 April 2016 in New York. 16 days ago (4th Nov. 2016), it went to effect. Up till writing this sentence, 122 parties have ratified this agreement, and more parties will ratify sooner. This agreement is a milestone in combating global warming globally. I think it has been the most efficient action so far against climate change, because it clarifies the obligatory goals all countries should work together to achieve. This time, countries are going to be responsible for global benefits, instead of only considering their owns.
One obligatory goal is to control the global average temperature warming to well below 2 °C, and to pursue efforts to hold the increase in temperature to to 1.5 °C, with both compared with pre-industrial levels. Ice melting would be controlled, if this goal could be achieved by the end of this century.
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