Climate change is a global challenge that requires global solutions, and many hope that international talks in Paris this December could foster global collaboration toward reining in greenhouse-gas emissions.
“[T]oday we have 500 laws in 60 countries covering 80 percent of global emissions [and] over 200 cities actually taking action on climate change,” Christiana Figueres, the UN climate chief, said in an interview with the Monitor last year. “That doesn’t happen just coincidentally. No country can solve this individually.”
For its part, the US has promised to cut its emissions 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. President Obama is counting on the fact that an ambitious US target will prod other major polluters like India and China to post equally bold targets.
