Week of 12/7 - 12/11 Post #3

As the UNFCC cop 21 meetings in Paris are drawing to an end, I am excited as, while doing some further research I have found some additional aspects and things that will be taken into account in the final treaty draft and meetings. Government officials have endorsed the idea that forests are key climate solutions. I have found that there is a decent amount of account taken for nature, especially in terms of forests. I found that the UNFCC secretariat has launched a "forest info hub" in which talks about how forests play a crucial role in the climate change regime. This hub talks a good amount and focuses on emissions from deforestation as deforestation (the mass tree removal in an area to be short) accounts for very high amounts of emissions and greenhouse gas emissions that contributes to climate change. This has a large impact on animals as it directly impacts their habitat availability as well as the emissions that come from deforestation contribute to climate change which further puts a strain on animals such as habitat degradation and melting in the polar regions. Along with this, it was discussed that a need to work toward a system of incentivizing the reductions in emissions from deforestation is needed. An additional report was that the tackling of methane and black carbon could reduce the artic warming by 0.5 degrees Celsius and this would be huge in terms of helping animal populations in these areas. These statements made by world leaders and scientists leave me very optimistic that something of worth will be achieved and a legally binding treaty will be reached at the Paris meetings and we as a world will be coming together to fight this pressing and growing problem of climate change and global warming.