American Chemical Society congratulates world leaders on climate accord

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2015 — After two weeks of talks in Paris, world diplomats representing 190 nations agreed to a global climate change accord on Saturday night. The American Chemical Society (ACS) joins world leaders and citizens alike in cheering the historic agreement that emerged from the 21st Conference of the Parties, or COP21. The agreement is being called by observers ambitious, realistic and a crucial step in protecting the Earth for future generations.

The accord represents a major milestone, coming after more than two decades of United Nations climate talks that failed to engage all countries and to slow the warming of the atmosphere.  For the first time, developed and developing countries have agreed to take steps to limit and adapt to climate change. The accord also lowers the limit of temperature increase over pre-industrial levels to substantially below 2.0 Celsius. And it encourages countries to exploit new technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming.

“The Society appreciates that the delegates at the Paris climate summit have taken the science seriously and appear to have reached agreement on the critical elements of an accord to address climate change,” says Thomas M. Connelly, Jr., ACS executive director and CEO. “Translating that agreement into effective solutions will demand the best efforts from science, and in particular chemistry.”

As the accord is implemented, chemists will contribute to progress by continuing to measure changes in the atmospheric chemistry that drive the changing climate, to develop new or improved energy sources and methods to sequester carbon from the atmosphere and to develop materials and methods to improve energy efficiency. 

ACS has called for action on global climate issues over the past 20 years. The Society’s current policy position can be found at http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/policy/publicpolicies/promote/globalclimatechange.html.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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