UNA Warwick & District: UN Climate Talks: Tough issues on the table in Paris

UNA Warwick & DIstrict are delighted to host Professor Edward Page on 21 November to debate what's at stake at this winter's Climate Conference in Paris

Current commitments on greenhouse gas emissions run out in 2020, so at Paris governments are expected to produce an agreement on what happens for the decade after that at least, and potentially beyond. There are currently five key points of contention that Professor Page will address in his speech.

1. Defining the warming threshold:  not all countries agree on how much temperature increase is too much.UN scientists have set a goal of preventing a rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

1. Financing:  the world's poorest nations have also pushed for payouts -- beyond the $100 billion -- for "loss and damage" caused by global warming.  Rich nations have balked at the concept of "compensation", but have agreed to discuss the issue.

1. Slashing emissions: one pillar of  CO21 will be the pledges that nearly 150 nations have already made for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. China, the United States and the European Union -- which together pump out over half the world's carbon dioxide pollution -- have led the way.

1. Blame game – built into the negotiations is the principle that rich countries have been the major cause of the problem and are therefore more responsible for fixing it. Wealthy countries insist that much has changed since then, and point out that nations once tagged as "developing" have made huge economic leaps and become big polluters in their own right. China is now the world's number one emitter of carbon pollution, overtaking the US, and India is number four.

1. Will there be a New Climate Change Treaty to replace the Koyoto protocol?

Professor Edward  Page is an  Associate Professor of International Relations and specialist on Climate Change and Global Warming,  Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Warwick

His research interests cover a range of topics issues in relation to international environmental politics. He is the author of Climate Change, Justice and Future Generations and he has published peer reviewed articles on variety of topics in global, intergenerational and environmental justice in journals such as Political Studies, Environmental Politics, International Theory and Journal of Global Ethics.

He is currently visiting researcher at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. Sweden, working on a project on compensating for losses and damages arising from global climate change.

Professor Page’s full academic profile can be accessed here.