Why all nations must unite against climate change

A woman is carried by a bodaboda operator in South C, Nairobi through a flooded road following a heavy downpour. Most roads in the area were rendered impassable. [Collins Okweyu, Standard]

Climate change has become the main threat to future of humankind, and the greatest environmental, ecological, and social challenge in the 21st century. As a planetary problem, the fight against climate change is clearly global in nature, and therefore, demands a multilateral response at the United Nations.

The successive UN Climate Change Conferences (COP) have been working since 1995 to align all countries in their fight against global warming. Noteworthy milestones include the Kyoto Protocol (1997), which established the obligation of certain countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and the 2015 Paris Agreement, requiring all signatories to present emission reduction plans to prevent global temperatures from increasing more than 2 degrees Celsius, while seeking to limit this increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius respective to pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development marked the beginning of a global agenda for sustainable development, which involves the transformation of the economic model and a new social contract of inclusive and sustainable prosperity.