Breaking: A goal in Paris Climate Agreement is "peaking" greenhouse gas emissions
The United Nations Paris Climate Agreement calls on parties to the international accord to reach peak greenhouse gas emissions "as soon as possible."
In the agreement championed globally, reaching long-term temperature goals requires that, “Parties aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.”
As heat waves cause more fanning and air conditioning from throughout the world, as chunks of ice melt off the glaciers on the planet, and as warmer water continues to fuel the strength of storms, the global agreement to maintain global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels continues.
Greenhouse gases are those that trap heat from the sun or make it more difficult for the heat to leave the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are released from the combustion of coal, oil or natural gas. Vehicles that use gas as fuel, from factories that provide electricity and that process chemicals release greenhouse gases in the course of their industrial activity.
According to a report from Princeton University’s Princeton Student Climate Initiative cited in The Miami Times, millions of Black people in the US who live in the 91 counties with oil refineries are in proximity of those facilities and more than one million Black people in the US live 2,645 feet or less from a site which extracts natural gas.
The temperature goal - comprising combined surface air and sea surface temperatures - of 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels converts to 34.7 degrees fahrenheit.
Crafters of the agreement acknowledge a “difficulty” of developing countries to reach “peak” greenhouse gas emissions, and set an expectation absorbers of carbon dioxide will be able to create a balance with greenhouse gas derived from humans.
Page four of the agreement - article four section one - “recognizes that developing countries will take longer to reach peak carbon emissions,” then afterwards rapid reductions, calls on achieving a balance between gas caused or produced by humans and removals by "sinks" of greenhouse gasses.
The ocean, wetlands and forests are examples of carbon sinks.
Updated 10-6-2022: A request for comment from UN Secretary-General has not been responded to as of this writing.