Nearly 200 nations sign deal to ‘end fossil fuel era’
Governments from nearly 200 nations have signed a deal that signals the end of the fossil fuel era, committing to a universal agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The agreement was signed at the COP21 climate conference held in Paris, and sets a new goal to reach zero net missions in the second half of the century, sending a strong message to businesses to transition away from fossil fuels and move to cleaner alternatives.
The overall agreement is legally binding, but individual country’s pledges to curb emissions are not.
Al Gore, former US Vice President who helped draft the 1997 Kyoto climate treaty, said: “This universal and ambitious agreement sends a clear signal to governments, businesses, and investors everywhere: the transformation of our global economy from one fuelled by dirty energy to one fuelled by sustainable economic growth is now firmly and inevitably underway.”
The agreement included the ‘Paris Declaration on Electro-Mobility and Climate Change’, which set out a specific call to action to reduce transport emissions. The declaration notes that transport contributes to 23 per cent of the current global energy related greenhouse gas emissions and is growing faster than any other energy end use sector. It calls on governments to ‘take action, and advance global momentum for electro-mobility’, saying that electric drive vehicles need to represent 35 per cent of global sales by 2030.
The declaration reads: “Limiting the global temperature increase to below two degrees Celsius requires changing this transport emissions trajectory, which involves the development of an integrated electro- mobility ecosystem encompassing various transport modes, coupled with the low-carbon production of electricity and hydrogen, implemented in conjunction with broader sustainable transport principles.
“According to the International Energy Agency, this transition will require, inter alia, pursuit of global rail transport electrification, already underway, as well as at least 20 per cent of all road transport vehicles globally to be electrically driven by 2030 – if warming is to be limited to two degrees or less.
“To achieve this goal IEA modelling says electric drive vehicles (battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles, including two and three wheelers, cars, light commercial vans, buses, trucks and others) need to represent 35 per cent of global sales in 2030.”