Climate Conference in Cancun, Mexico
Representatives from almost 200 countries signed a climate pact in Cancun Mexico. Although it is not a binding agreement, many climate experts say it is a step in the right direction after the Copenhagen Climate conference in 2009 did not produce any real results.
In the Cancun agreement , developed and developing countries have promised to cut emissions . A new green fund is to be set up that will give poor countries over $133 billion a year by 2020. They will use this money to protect forests, to share technology and to lower their greenhouse gas emissions . The United Nations has the job of monitoring the emission rates .
The countries present at Cancun, however , did not agree on how to deal with the Kyoto Protocol. It was signed over a decade ago and is still in effect. Under the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012, 40 rich nations have promised to cut emissions. It was not signed by the two largest polluters , the USA and China.
The delegates also agreed that global temperature should not rise more than 2°C (3.6”F) above the levels before the Industrial Revolution began. According to climate experts the world is heading towards a rise of 3.6° C . Right now we are 0.8% higher than pre-industrial times. Island countries of the Pacific and Indian Ocean are afraid that a rise in temperature will lead to a flooding of their countries.
The biggest success of the Cancun agreement is that the talks will continue. It also has succeeded in building trust between rich nations and the poor ones of the Third World.
Only Bolivia refused to sign the agreement . It said the agreement was meaningless because richer countries would have to do much more to fight global warming .
Rise in global temperature since the 19th century
- Copenhagen Climate Conference
- Global Warming
- Drought in Kenya Caused by Climate Change
- Weather Elements
- Carbon Dioxide- A Greenhouse Gas
- according to =as said by …
- agreement = a promise to do something made by two or more people, organizations or countries
- although = while
- billion = a thousand million
- binding agreement = a treaty or agreement that countries must obey or follow
- build trust = when two people or countries think that they can be honest to each other
- cut = lower
- decade = a period of ten years
- delegate = representative of a country
- developed country = industrialized country in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia
- developing country = poor country of the Third World
- emission = gas or other particles that are sent into the air
- emission rate = how high emissions are
- flooding = to cover land with water
- fund = money that is collected for something special
- global warming = the rise in the earth’s temperature because more and more greenhouse gases get into the atmosphere
- greenhouse gas = gas like carbon dioxide or methane that makes the atmosphere denser and lets light in but does not let heat out
- however = but
- meaningless = without any meaning , worthless
- pact = agreement, treaty
- pre-industrial = before the Industrial Revolution began
- present = at the conference table
- produce = turn out
- promise = to say that you will do something
- refuse = to say no
- representative = a person who comes to a conference to speak for his or her country
- share = to use together with others
- sign = to put your name on a document
- success = when you achieve what you have wanted to