“The Paris agreement
signals that deniers
have lost the climate
wars,” read the UK
Guardian headline on
December 14, 2015.
... "195 world nations
have agreed to ignore
climate science denial
and cut carbon pollution
as much as possible.”
In my climate science
reading, I found that
similar hyperbole
followed the Kyoto
Protocol in the late
1980s.
Nearly five
years later,
the voluntary
Paris Accord
seems to be
sinking.
Virtually all
of the countries
have chosen
business-as-usual
energy policies,
in place of the
voluntary,
aspirational
goals of the
Paris Accord.
Of the 189 signatories
to the 2005 Accord,
181 countries have NOT
updated their Nationally
Determined Contributions
(NDC) targets to indicate
decarbonization “progress.”
The governments below
have clearly signaled
an intent to NOT update
their NDC 2030 targets
or have signaled that
they will only
're-communicate'
their existing NDC
goals with no significant
change in emissions:
Russia,
Japan,
Indonesia,
Singapore,
Australia,
... and the U.S.
dropped out
of the Accord.
The COP25
United Nations
climate change
conference
last year in
Madrid, Spain
was recognized
as just talk
and no action.
The COP26 UN
climate change
conference
set for Glasgow
in November 2020
has been
postponed
to 2021 due to
COVID-19.
Fossil fuels
seem to be
winning.