What’s at Stake in the Bonn Climate Talks?
In 2018, leaders plan to assess their efforts to date
and discuss what further action could help lessen the odds of drastic global warming — with the goal of crafting newer, stronger national pledges by 2020.
The government of Fiji is presiding over the Bonn conference, which will put the spotlight on issues like "loss and damage" —
that is, whether wealthy nations should compensate island nations and other poorer countries for the droughts, storms and rising sea levels that their emissions are causing.
Because the Paris pledges are largely voluntary — world leaders would have never agreed
to a deal otherwise — no one can force governments to take additional action.
10, 2017
The Paris climate agreement of 2015 was a key moment in the battle against climate change: 195 countries vowed to help limit
the rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Two years after countries signed a landmark climate agreement in Paris, the world remains
far off course from preventing drastic global warming in the decades ahead.
Conversely, it’s entirely possible that the Trump administration’s rejection of the Paris deal
could lead other countries to disengage from global efforts to address climate change.