The Road to Paris: COP21

In November, 2015, the next chapter in the history of climate change negotiations will be written as the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place in Paris, France. 

If you have been following the climate change negotiations (NPR News put together a nice timeline below) you may be a bit weary of the hype surrounding COP21. Past negotiations have disappointed supporters of environmental action by failing to agree on a binding international treaty to take action against climate change. Furthermore, the Kyoto Protocol, the only agreement previously reached to reduce carbon emissions made minimal progress and was abandoned by some of the world's largest emitters; the Kyoto Protocol's commitment period ended in 2012 and has not been replaced with a successor agreement.

But there is progress being made and the hype is a good sign of it. The popularity and awareness of climate change negotiations is growing, and there increasingly more ways for groups and individuals to take effective action. The momentum is building towards a binding climate change treaty in Paris; a recent iteration of the climate talks in Durban, South Africa, expressed the need to make an agreement on climate change in 2015, and albeit vague, it gives us hope that this could be the year.

So, stay tuned and let your voice be heard. There are 195 representatives preparing for the monumental task of agreeing on a treaty that is realistic, effective, and binding. If COP21 is able to accomplish this then we will have cause to celebrate together. When the dust settles, it remains the responsibility of each of us to keep the pressure on our nations to take action and begin to align economic growth with the balance and protection of our environment. 

See you in Paris.

1979: The first World Climate Conference is held. It's one of the first major international meetings on climate change.

1988: United Nations establishes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific advisory group.

1992: U.N. holds the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Countries attending negotiate the main international treaty on climate change — the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

1995: Nations agree to the "Berlin Mandate" which, essentially, gets all developing countries off the hook for taking action.

1997: Kyoto Protocol is negotiated. It's the first detailed agreement to control greenhouse gas emissions. All developing countries get a free pass.

2007: A major assessment from the IPCC makes headlines with its conclusion that global warming is "unequivocal," with most of it "very likely" due to human activities.

2008: The first five-year commitment period to reduce emissions to target-levels agreed to in Kyoto starts.

2009: After hopes are raised for a more ambitious agreement to cut emissions once the Kyoto commitment period lapses in 2012, talks in Copenhagen end in disappointment.

2010: Governments agree that emissions should be reduced so that global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius.

2011: A breakthrough U.N. climate meeting in Durban calls for a universal legal agreement on climate change no later than 2015.

2013: Key decisions made during U.N. talks include creation of the Green Climate Fund, a way to take money from the industrialized world and give it to the developing world to help the latter nations adapt to and mitigate climate change.

2015: U.N. Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.