Sweden’s environment minister positive on Lima deal
Sweden’s environment minister is pleased with the climate change summit in Lima, despite that the agreed-upon goals stopped far short of what UN scientists estimate is needed to stop massive damage to human society.
Minister Åsa Romson says to Swedish Radio News that the Lima agreement sets the stage for proper negotiations.
But according to the general secretary of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Svante Axelsson, what came out of the meeting is “not a result that will fix the climate.”
The Lima meeting did not agree on a core purpose for the Paris summit in 2015, setting instead a timetable for countries to report what they are doing to cut climate-damaging emissions.
The United Nations says the Paris meeting will not manage to get countries to commit to cuts that will keep global warming to two degrees Celsius, reports Reuters.
The UN scientific panel IPCC estimates that warming of over one degree disproportionally increases the risk of “abrupt and irreversible changes due to massive melting of ice sheets.”
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: How climate is changing the Arctic – The `Big Picture,` Deutsche Welle Iceblogger.
Greenland: Field notes from Greenland – From the glacier to the sea, Blog by Mia Bennett
Russia: Arctic methane: time bomb or “boogeyman”?, Analysis from Deutsche Welle’s Iceblogger
Sweden: Mapping Sweden’s 250-odd glaciers, Eye on the Arctic
United States: NASA findings show no excessive methane emissions from Alaska, Alaska Dispatch
