Can the Paris Agreement save us from a climate catastrophe?

摘要

As a society, we are living through one of the mostchallenging periods of human civilisation. Climatechange’s impacts a?ect not only our health but alsohave a profound e?ect on the rate of social, economic,and technological transformation that is possible.Climate change represents the biggest threat tohumankind. As well as immediate hazards, extremeweather events impact on mental health and oftencreate conditions conducive to outbreaks of infectiousdiseases: heavy rains produce insect-breeding groundsand contaminate clean water sources; while droughtcan increase distribution of fungal spores. Women,especially expectant mothers, are highly vulnerableto water-borne diseases, extremes of temperatureand other catastrophic events. Women and childrenare 14-times more likely than men to die during adisaster. If we consider that 68% of disasters are relatedto climate change, then this is an alarming disparity.In December, 2015, 195 countries and the EuropeanUnion announced in Paris a global commitment tochange. The central part of the Paris Agreement wasthat temperature rise would not exceed 2°C abovepreindustrial levels, and a secondary part set thetarget to 1·5°C. The Agreement is due to commencein 2020 and so far 195 parties remain committed to it.However, the signatories have not yet agreed how theyintend to achieve these targets and a rise of 1°C hasalready occurred.