EVENT OF THE MONTH: DECEMBER 2015

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 will be held in Paris, from November 30 to December 11. It will be the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. 

The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world. According to the organizing committee, the objective of the 2015 conference is to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.

Pope Francis published an encyclical called Laudato si' intended, in part, to influence the conference. The encyclical calls for action against climate change. The International Trade Union Confederation has called for the goal to be 'zero carbon, zero poverty', and the general secretary Sharan Burrow has repeated that there are 'no jobs on a dead planet'.

The overarching goal of the Convention is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. During previous climate negotiations, countries agreed to outline actions they intend to take within a global agreement by March 2015. These commitments are known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs.

Website: http://unfccc.int