In the lead up to the COP21 climate talks in Paris, we heard from scientists that our planet was on course for a global temperature increase of 4.5 degrees Celsius (8.1 F) by 2100. We heard that if we failed to intervene, we were condemning future generations to a life unlike our own.
We're now past the midway point of COP21. Despite the media noise and political bickering, we have no reason to be anything but confident that we will reach an agreement that bends that trajectory toward a more habitable future -- hopefully moving from 4.5 to 2 degrees of warming.
This alone would be an amazing accomplishment. Once this is in place, we'll have an opportunity to ratchet up those commitments in order to reach 1.5 degrees (which many see as the next big milestone), but this reduction to 2.5 degrees alone is a huge first step.
Last week, 150 heads of state convened in Paris in an unprecedented show of global collaboration. Now it's time for others to put that sentiment into action. The presidents are gone; the princes are gone; the prime ministers are gone, too - but the climate experts are grinding forward here in Paris, and successfully. On every front where Forest Trends is tracking developments, we're seeing major progress: the private-sector front, the Indigenous Peoples front, and the formal negotiating front.
Negotiators and Ministers gathered in Le Bourget must seize the opportunity to make history this week
We're seeing ambition and climate action leadership from unconventional places, namely on the private-sector front and at the sub-national government level. Members of the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force (including California and state governments in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Peru) are adding emissions reduction pledges of their own to those made by the world's national governments assembled at COP21. Yesterday in Paris, Forests Trends and some of our partners hosted California Governor Jerry Brown, who spoke about innovative subnational action to reduce deforestation and promote low-carbon land use.
Meanwhile, global brands like Unilever, Marks & Spencer, and IKEA continue to set an example for the rest of the private sector, making ambitious pledges in the last week to increase their sustainable sourcing efforts and/or shift their operations to 100 percent renewable energy. When it comes to zero-deforestation commitments, programs like our Supply Change initiative will continue to track the impact of pledges and progress toward meeting them, in the process encouraging companies to make good on their promises.
On the indigenous front, our partners from the forest community have eloquently advocated for the adoption of financing mechanisms that Forest Trends pioneered. Both Fermin Chimantani, leader of Peru's Amarakaeri Community Reserve, and Jorge Furagaro Kuetgaje, leader of the indigenous federation COICA, have been blitzing the venue with calls to harness climate finance to save endangered rainforests.
On the negotiating front, we're encouraged that the current Paris draft provides for countries to make forest protection a part of their climate action plans. We're also inching closer to seeing the adoption of clear, concise language that sends an even stronger political signal in favor of utilizing forests' natural ability to fight climate change.
So ignore the noise and the often-divisive media narratives, Negotiators and Ministers. This week is your chance to make an unprecedented and potentially planet-saving achievement.