Climate Summit Kicks off, Paris Goes on High Alert!

Local Editor

Security measures tightened in Paris, with 120,000 police and army personnel patrolling the city as 150 world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin arrive for a global climate change summit.

Paris went on high alert as it is hosting the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [COP21] two weeks after "ISIS" gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people on November 13 in the city.

On the eve of the summit, activists across the globe marched in support of new environmental initiatives, calling for meaningful discussions and decisive actions from world leaders at the "last chance" conference.

Although demonstrations were banned by the French authorities following the terrorist attacks, activists laid out some 20,000 shoes in the Parisian Place de la Republique to symbolize absent marchers.

Climate change refers to the increase in the average temperature of the oceans and the Earth's atmosphere. It is attributed to human activities, which directly or indirectly alter the composition of the Earth's atmosphere beyond the natural variability of the climate observed over comparable periods.

The summit's primary objective is to limit average global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius [3.6 degrees Fahrenheit], over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, by curbing fossil fuel emissions.

For the purpose, climate experts estimate that global greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced 40-70% by 2050, and that carbon neutrality [zero emissions] needs to be reached by the end of the century at the latest.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team