COP 21, December 3

            There are a couple new developing stories I would like to talk about today regarding COP 21.  There are two important topics that have been discussed today which play a major role in combatting climate change as well as supporting adaptation and mitigation efforts. These subjects are, keeping global temperature rise to 2˚C and working on improving early warning systems for weather. Both of these topics are within my research area for my white paper. I personally believe that keeping global temperature rise to 2˚C is one of the most important goals that need to be looked at and achieved at COP21. Right now, according to Dr. Katherine Watts in order to keep global temperature rise under 2˚C the world must limit its CO2 emissions to under 1 gigatonne. This means that the nations meeting at COP21 must give their best efforts to come to some sort of agreements to make this happen. In regards to the efforts to increase early warning systems for extreme weather, this is another important topic. Extreme weather has been battering third world countries and those countries who have a high vulnerability to these catastrophes. It is important that countries invest to improve these systems in order to protect third world countries. On December 3^rd, Germanwatch presented to the press on global cliamte risk index. Their presentation showed that the top 10 countries in the world feeling the hardest impacts of climate extremes and climate change are indeed third world countries. Also, later on December 3, France as well as other developed countries decided to pledge money to the cause and plan to increase early detection systems significantly over the next decade.