Why protest?
These demonstrators are protesting against the UN’s Conference on Climate Change. Some might wonder why anyone would be opposed to a summit aimed at finding a solution to global warming. Well...perhaps anyone but these guys... Other people might wonder...what’s so worrying about ‘climate change’? What do we risk if we don’t do anything about it? And it’s not just Alaska that’s feeling the heat. The Great Barrier Reef, Mumbai, the Alps, and Gansu Province in China are among some of the places in the world most affected by climate change. But how did it all come to this? The emission of greenhouse gases has a lot to do with it.

What is the greenhouse effect, anyway?
The greenhouse effect isn’t always bad- it’s the natural way our planet heats. The problem is that now, humans are causing so much pollution that the greenhouse effect is causing the climate to change for the worse. And while Obama has pledged to reduce these emissions by 28 percent within the next 10 years, the developed world creates 80 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. And the US is the world’s second biggest emitter. So some people say that years later, most of the pledges just aren’t enough…

20 years of ‘change’
That was in 1997...And now… In 1996, The European Council of Environmental Ministers agreed that global warming should be capped to 2 degrees celsius above “pre-industrial levels.” This is what the Stockholm Environment Institute had recommended in 1990. And 25 years later, most of Europe is sticking to this recommendation… But, the least developed countries- and France- want no more than one and a half degrees. They say otherwise their ‘economic development, food security, ecosystems and survival’ would be at risk. Of course, either of these limits would require serious reductions in emissions and investment into developing countries. World leaders have been trying to come up with a significant agreement since the COP climate change conferences began in Berlin in 1995…

Will this year be any different?
So far, leaders have made some big pledges. French President Francois Hollande and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have said they’ll raise 1 trillion dollars to invest in solar energy in more than 100 developing nations. And Norway, Germany and the UK have said they’ll allocate 5 billion dollars to fight deforestation… But these promises could still fall short. And the EU’s Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action, Miguel Canete (Mee-gell Kahn-yet-eh) has said there is ‘No Plan B…” (while environmental campaigners say there is no Planet B) meaning...time is running out.

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