Here in Towson, the temperature inconsistency has not gone unnoticed. Sadly, this weather phenomena isn’t specific to Maryland- it’s happening on a global level. A global issue like climate change requires input from various countries and leaders. In an effort to tackle the budding climate change issue, the UN initiated a meeting in Paris called COP21 (Conference of Parties). With over a 195 nations present, the Conference of Parties is working towards making the earth a cooler place to live.

The COP21’s overall object is to create a legal agreement with the goal to keep global warming under a threshold of 2 degrees Celsius. In order for this agreement to work, all the countries legally bound to the agreement will have to work towards lowering greenhouse gases on a global level. The COP21 agreement was finalized on December 14, 2015 and will come into full effect in 2020. It also requires that countries’ contributions towards lowering greenhouse gases are checked every five years. In addition, developed nations must assist impoverished nations in diminishing their production of greenhouse gases, since many of them don’t have the means to do so. These requirements drafted by COP21 attendees may seem trivial, but their global effects are significant.

The COP21 global climate change agreement came at a crucial time. According to NASA, there is evidence that shows that the earth has been warming since 1880. Furthermore, the ten warmest years have occurred in the past twelve years. Global warming isn’t just limited to rising temperatures either—polar ice sheets in Antarctica and New Zealand have decreased in size significantly since 2002. The effects of global warming are innumerable, but tackling the problem is not impossible.

The construction of the COP21 agreement took over two weeks and utilized the efforts of over one hundred countries. Despite the countries’ hard work, the COP21 agreement may do little to help to tackle the budding global warming catastrophe. It is virtually impossible to control all CO2 emissions from all around the world and the earth naturally gets warmer over time. However, recognizing global warming as an issue and finding solutions to the problem is a big step towards making the earth a slightly colder place to live.