Conference to combat climate change

[SBGroup]

The 21^st Conference of Parties (COP21) kicked off in Paris, France on Monday 30 November 2015. This year’s conference will attract close to 50 000 participants including 25 000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organizations, United Nations (UN) agencies, NGOs and civil society. COP refers to the countries that have signed up to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

COP21 also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, will run for two weeks. The program is packed, with numerous events dedicated to Africa and the continent’s specific challenges in the face of climate change.

This year’s conference aims to keep global warming below 2°C. Research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC), shows a temperature increase of over 2°C would lead to serious consequences, which we have already started to see.

2°C is seen as an ambitious goal, but  this may send the economic players the necessary signals to launch the transition to a low-carbon economy. It will be an opportunity to be flexible and take into account the situations, specificities, needs and capabilities of each country, including the least developed countries and small island States.

In this year’s conference, African nations are strongly represented. This will give the continent an opportunity to address the impact climate change has had across Africa and a focus for Africa to embrace clean energy solutions.

For more information on Standard Bank Group’s sustainability efforts, visit http://sustainability.standardbank.com