US Academies call for research agenda on Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration
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US Academies call for research agenda on Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration
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limate change has long been a topic of significant scientific and political discussion. Scientific evidence and predictions of the impact of climate change have served to galvanize international political action and treaties that have garnered varying levels of support. The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) was the first treaty to set goals for international cooperation to mitigate climate change, which was followed by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015. The Paris Agreement set a target to limit the increase in global average temperature this century well below 2°C above preindustrial levels.
International Cooperation Efforts to Mitigate Climate Change United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) This was the first international environmental treaty addressing climate change. It was adopted on May 9, 1992, signed by 197 parties, including all United Nations member states, and entered into force on March 21, 1994. This treaty set up a framework of non-binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries, with a goal of “preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with Earth’s climate system.”
Kyoto Protocol This treaty extends the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions established by the UNFCCC and acknowledges the scientific consensus both that global warming is occurring and that it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have been a predominant cause. The protocol established binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions for industrialized countries based on the treaty’s acknowledgment that economically developed nations are both more capable of combating climate change and historically responsible for the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at the time. It was adopted on December 11, 1997, and came into force on February 16, 2005. The United States signed but never ratified the Kyoto Protocol because it lacked political support due to the treaty’s differing requirements for emissions reduction for industrialized versus developing countries. The European Economic Community (a regional economic organization) and 191 countries eventually ratified the treaty, but Canada renounced it and withdrew in December 2012.
Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement is the latest climate treaty, and its long-term goal is to keep the increase in global average temperature this century well below 2°C (above preindustrial levels) and to pursue an even more aggressive goal to limit the rise to 1.5°C. The agreement requires each nation to determine and report on its own plan to mitigate climate change and encourages setting increasingly stringent targets but includes no mechanism to force compliance. It was adopted on December 12, 2015, signed by 195 UNFCCC members, and went into force on November 4, 2016. In June 2017, US President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Par
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