Paris Climate Change Deal: Hailed as Historic but also Considered as Disappointment

On Saturday 12th December 2015, the world has woken up to the news that a historic climate change deal has been reached at the Cop21 summit in Paris following an intense and lengthy negotiations. There were joyous scenes at Le Bourget as 195 countries agrees to the world's first comprehensive climate deal after almost a fortnight of negotiations.

According to the BBC, the key elements for the deal which unites all the world's nations in a single agreement on tackling climate change for the first time in history includes the following:

• To keep global temperatures "well below" 2.0C (3.6F) and "endeavour to limit" them even more to, 1.5C
• To limit the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100
• To review each country's contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge 
• For rich countries to help poorer nations by providing "climate finance" to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy

Leaders at Cop21. Source: theguardian

World Leaders have been swift in issuing positive statements about the deal with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying: "it is a monumental triumph for people and planet". President Barack Obama hailed the deal as "our best chance to save the one planet we have" while President Francois Hollande said: "In Paris, there have been many revolution over the centuries. Today is the most beautiful and most peaceful revolution that has just been accomplished - a revolution for climate change".

Showers of praises all over but not everyone was overly-optimistic about the deal. Some activist called the draft "deliberately vague, subject to interpretation and non-binding" with many of the goals simply aspirational. While others said it was a "sham", the outcome of deception and bullying, with developed countries getting away with the meanest of undertakings.

Questions remain unanswered in Paris. Source: greenbiz

Meanwhile, The Gambian Environment Minister, Pa Ousman Jarju as reported in the dailyobserver disclosed that; the impact of global warming and climate change does not correspond to the country's contribution to the problem as we only produces about 0.01% of total greenhouse gas emission. 

Mr. Jarju stressed that; The Gambia has tasked itself through the submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to drastically reduced greenhouse gas emissions from key sectors of the economy by 44.4% in 2025 and 45.5% by 2030. He said "if we can take these bold steps, then developed countries and those increasingly contributing to global emission have the moral obligation to do more".

According to the environment minister, the agreement that member states were set to adopt needed to be legally binding and hold average global temperature rise to below 1.5C - anything less will be considered an awful disappointments.

It is safe to conclude that the Paris Climate Change deal is a clear disappointment for some parties, yet still others hailed it as historic. But with all the optimism and pessimism, Cop21 is now history. Therefore, for now, we can only wait and see how the agreement pans out and what the future holds for our planet!