What is COP21
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 was in Paris, from November 30 to December 11, 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference objective is a universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world. Over 190 countries were involved in the United Nations 21st Conference of the Parties.
The big success of Convention was the agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
IPL at COP21
The day before the Paris Agreement was reached, Rev. Sally Bingham, Sr. Joan Brown, and Susan Stephenson delivered a presentation at the U.S. Pavilion at the Paris Climate Talks. They discussed the importance of faith communities and people of faith in historical social and environmental movements; additionally they outlined what people of faith are doing today to combat global climate change.
They also presented to representatives of the U.S. State Department the 11-foot-long scroll of the over 4,500 names of congregations and individuals who took the Paris Pledge. The voice of civil society was crucial in reaching the Paris Agreement. Thank you for helping the world take this important step!
Check the IPL blog for reflections from Paris