Paris COP21 on climate change – changing the world we lived

There would still be the demands from the developing nations, particularly the island states that would face the most direct impact of higher sea level, on the developed nations for more financial assistance to meet the challenges of shrinking islands. The pledges are voluntary though some leaders are pushing for them to be legally binding. What needs to be addressed quickly is the cost of implementing the pledges to the fullest instead of just a thought of what the countries would like to do. Many of the countries would be hard pressed when cost of cutting carbon emission is prohibitive. Who is going to finance the measures to be taken?

Countries like China with their manufacturing capabilities and technologies in windmills and solar panels would play a bigger part in assisting countries in transforming their energy production to clean energy. China could showcase its knowhow and clean energy products and processes to countries to meet their pledges and commitments to cut carbon emissions. It is infrastructure development of a different kind where China is well positioned to play a big role for the island nations.

The Paris meeting will generate demands and opportunities for clean and renewable energy technologies between the users and manufacturers of such technologies. The transition to new and clean energy will revolutionize human activities and behaviors in a very major way. New industries will emerge to support the needs of countries going green and to cut carbon emissions. Lifestyle and living will not be the same again.

China's investment and development in lowering the cost of green technology could be a game changer for countries wanting to make the change to new energy sources. No amount of talks, scientific presentations and pledges will make the earth better unless the cost is addressed and reduced to an acceptable level. After Paris the talking must stop and serious work begins.

Saving the earth from climate change is an enormous task involving every country and every citizen of the world, and is a continuous process of human endeavor.

The author, Chua Chin Leng, is a political observer from Singapore.