October 31, 2016

"Impossible Is Not a Fact--it's an attitude": The Inside Story of the Paris Climate Agreement [Video]

In her 2016 TED talk on the Paris Agreement, UNFCCC** Executive Chairman Christiana Figueres discusses how she turned her skepticism following the COP15 in Copenhagen into optimism

By Melissa C. Lott

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

On November 4^th, the Paris Agreement will go into force after successfully crossing the threshold for entry. This threshold was reached this month on October 5^th when “at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions” had documented that the Agreement has been ratified within their country.

In her 2016 TED talk on the Paris Agreement, UNFCCC** Executive Chairman Christiana Figueres discusses how she turned her skepticism following the COP15 in Copenhagen into optimism. According to Figueres, she began by accepting that “impossible is not a fact… it’s only an attitude.” She then spent six years “ relentlessly” injecting optimism into the climate conversation, culminating in last year’s Paris Agreement.

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In November, the 22^nd Conference of the Parties will be held in Marrakech, Morrocco. As of today, a total of 87 countries have already ratified the Paris Agreement out of the 192 that signed the agreement in 2015.

**United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

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