Originally written to publish November 18.
As you read this, the COP 30 meeting is taking place in Brazil. COP 30 (UN Framework Convention on Climate Chage – UNFCCC) is the 30th annual United Nations climate change conference. It is taking place in Belem, Brazil from November 10 to 21. The 2025 meetings will involve nearly 200 countries focusing on reducing emissions, increasing climate finance, and developing new action plans. Official government delegates from nearly every country will be attending. Key focal points will be:
• Limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5oC.
• Presenting new national climate action plans.
• Making progress on finance commitments made at previous conferences
• Discussing adaptation.
The first (COP 1) conference was held in Berlin, Germany, in 1995. It involved all the countries that had ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) formed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The United States was the first developed nation to become a signatory when President George H.W. Bush signed the convention in June 1992. By 1992, it was recognized by the global scientific community that climate change is likely the most significant environmental challenge facing humanity. There was nearly unanimous agreement at that time within the scientific community and that agreement continues today.
The Paris Agreement was formulated and adopted on December 12, 2015, in Paris, France at the UN climate change conference (COP 21). It is a legally binding National treaty which entered into force on November 4, 2016. The U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement during Donald Trumps first term in office but re-established the U.S. support on day one of President Biden in 2021. On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order to again withdraw the United States from the agreement for a second time.
As you read this “Corner”, COP 30 is underway but for the first time, there are no official United States government representatives. In the words of President Trump, climate change is a “con job and a hoax”.
The next Creation’s Corner, #61, will briefly review the recognized broad/diverse impacts of climate change and the recent research on some arctic rivers that are now running orange in color with water so toxic that most aquatic life has died — one more impact of climate change!
Our Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the privilege and responsibility that you have given to your followers to care for your marvelous creation. We pray for grace and the ability and wisdom to critically examine the evidence gained from Creation to know how to carry out the task that you have placed in our hands and responsible leaders in our country and the world to carry this work forward. Amen.
Thanks for caring!
— Joe Sheldon
Direct comments to Joe Sheldon at jksheldon43@gmail.com
