Penehuro Lefale attended “Our Common Future under Climate Change Conference (CFCC15)” held in Paris, July 7-10, 2015 http://www.commonfuture-paris2015.org. The four day conference was the largest forum for the scientific community to get together ahead of the 21st UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP21), also to be held in Paris in December 2015. The CFCC15 built on the results of the IPCC AR5. It addressed key issues concerning climate change in the broader context of global change. The Conference was organized under the umbrella of ICSU, Future Earth, UNESCO and major French research institutions, with the support of the French Government. The Conference has four overarching objectives:
In the closing plenary, Scientific Committee Chair Professor Chris Field, summed up the conference key messages: “We are moving to a post-carbon era, where climate change mitigation and adaptation are combined with other goals to build a sustainable future,” noting the deep commitment of scientists to be part of the solution. Field also presented the conference Outcome Statement, which emphasised that, for a two in three probability holding warming to 2°C or less, we have a remaining carbon budget of about 20 years’ worth of current emissions. To achieve a stable climate, emissions eventually must go to zero. Field also emphasised that science has an essential role in highlighting connections between objective observations of the Earth’s state and the human questions raised by climate change: “how we think about the interests of the poor versus the rich, the future versus the present, and nature versus economies.” Lefale gratefully acknowledged the kind financial and related support by the following organisations that enabled him to attend CFCC15: US NOAA GCOS Program, University of Colorado (UCAR) and Bodeker Scientific. (1) Bodeker Scientific, Alexandra, New Zealand (2) Deutscher Wetterdienst, Lindenberg, Germany (3) Maynooth University, Department of Geography, Maynooth, Ireland |
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