The Mysticals had an important project due tomorrow for school. Orak, Verum, and Felix had finished working on their projects. But Scorch had pushed everything to the last minute and now, she was really struggling to meet the deadline.
She cribbed, “Uh! I don’t like deadlines. How am I going to finish my project by tomorrow?”
Orak said, “We can help you just this once. But Scorch, deadlines are good. It means you push yourself to finish the project by tomorrow. Otherwise, your project would never get done.”
“I hate to admit it but you’re right, Orak,” said Scorch, “I should really learn to stick to the schedule.”
“If it helps, you’re not the only one struggling with deadlines,” said Verum with a shrug.
“Really? But I thought you were done with your project,” said a wide-eyed Scorch.
“I’m talking about some countries who failed to meet a United Nations (UN) deadline. The countries were to submit fresh plans to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and fight climate change,” said Verum, “It all goes back to the Paris climate accord or the Paris Agreement of 2015.”
“Under this agreement, countries set their own targets to reduce emissions. But they have to be transparent about them and raise their targets over time,” explained Felix, “This way lesser amounts of greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere, and global warming can be restricted to limited levels.”
“Oh, I see,” said Scorch.
“A United Nations climate change conference is scheduled to take place in November this year. Before that, the UN climate change agency will prepare a report on the updated targets of the signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” said Verum.
She added, “But only 110 signatories sent their updated targets. About 82 countries like China, India, South Africa, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. didn’t send them before the deadline of 31st July.”
“Uh-oh,” said Scorch, “This is an important deadline to meet. Climate change is happening now as we speak. And so, the efforts to fight it should also take place now.”