COP21: Will Anything Come of It?

Today marks the start of the second week of the COP21 Climate Summit in France. It is believed to be one of the last chances that we have to save our planet and control climate change by laying out the framework to prevent global temperature increases beyond 2 degrees Celsius. This is such a big deal that even the Pope is requesting divine intervention so that a deal can be made to save the planet.
However, the recent weather phenomena I have either experienced or watched occur someplace in the world on the news – from the drought in Southern Africa, to the flooding in the UK and the drowning of Chenai India by nature – has me wondering if we may have come to this Green Party a little too late; and if not, that we’re likely going to need another 21 or more Congresses Of the Parties to get an agreement between all states on limiting their carbon footprint and doing their bit to save the world.

I sound like someone without any faith in Humanity, which is somewhat true. I’ve partially lost my faith in the ability of humanity to halt our current climate reality because of the fact that our countries, our nations and states are simply amalgamations of self interested parties, somehow  based deeply in ideologies that did not realize that the resources of the planet are finite and industrialization as they were doing would cause global warming.
Yet at the same time, I am stirred within my soul to have hope that humanity can change. That we can come to a place where we can live sustainably with our environment , sort of a symbiotic relationship, where we keep nature healthy and nature keeps us safe and sound. This hope comes from individuals like Elon Musk and other entrepreneurs and individuals who are doing the little things to highlight the environmental agenda in the marketplace and provide ideas about sustainable energy production and consumption (this in my opinion does not include Shale, Crude Oil and definitely not fossil fuels).

I fear that COP21 will end up becoming yet another talkshop about considering having future talkshops to deal with the issue on hand, despite all the enthusiasm others might have. See, the main challenge faced by COP21 is how do we get the developing world into clean energy when they haven’t yet fully industrialized, while preventing the results of climate change from affecting the countries in the developing world. The question on everyone’s mind, including my own is how will they get both China and India; two large industrial countries and polluters to agree to reduce their carbon emissions, and how will that be enforced.
See its all go until one country decides to default in commons leaving the others to shoulder more than their share of the weight, until eventual every country is doing its own thing, ignoring the agreements made at any COP; visibly oblivious to the fact that they are creating a world more inhospitable to their future generations.

To conclude. I await with the draft agreement to limit emissions and avoid the 2 degree Celsius point of no return; yet I am cautiously optimistic that anything significant will happen because World Leaders love playing politics.