A global agreement to tackle climate change is a landmark decision but only represents the beginning of a long road to managing rising temperatures, a University of Otago professor says.
Former Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientist Prof Blair Fitzharris said the agreement was a major step forward, given a similar conference in Copenhagen in 2009 ended in disarray.
‘‘At least there's a plan forward, but there's still a lot of work to do,'' he said.‘‘It's still going to be a hard thing to achieve and there will need to be a lot of negotiations over the next five years or so, but to get an agreement on a global scale is a very difficult thing to do.''
That a clear target had been set, and an agreement for wealthier nations to financially assist poorer nations had been made, showed key players were taking the issue seriously, Prof Fitzharris said.
‘‘As we saw in Copenhagen, some countries weren't interested in getting any sort of agreement.
‘‘I think the science has become so strong on global warming that every country recognises something has to be done to change from being a carbon-rich economy to one based on non-carbon energy.''
Having China, the US and Europe sign the pact helped fuel optimism the agreement would make a difference, he said.
The pact was better equipped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than the previous 2008 Kyoto Protocol.
‘‘That was a very good framework but it only involved the developed countries, then some countries got cold feet.''
