PD Editorial: The urgency of Paris climate talks

Eighteen years have passed since the leading nations of the world came together on a binding agreement on how to combat global warming. That deal, struck in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, was a start. But if it had an impact, it was only to slow ever so slightly the rate of carbon buildup - not to reverse course.

In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the amount of carbon dioxide emissions coming from the burning of fossil fuels has increased nearly 50 percent since the Kyoto agreement. In total, the world is now spewing more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air - every day.

And the impacts are showing. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Earth set a record for the hottest year in 1997. But that was broken by record temperatures in 1998, and again in 2005 - followed by record years in 2010, 2014 and, most likely, this year as well.

The changes are having an impact. When measuring its lowest point during the summer, the Arctic sea ice is, on average, 820,000 square miles smaller today than it was 18 years ago, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. That’s greater than the size of Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona combined.

Despite the head-in-the-sand approach taken by the Republican-controlled Congress, most world leaders recognize the critical importance of forging another more-ambitious agreement.

“I am quite stunned by how much the Earth has changed since 1997,” Bill Anderegg, associate research scholar in the Princeton Environmental Institute at Princeton University told Associated Press. “In many cases, the speed of climate change is proceeding even faster than we thought it would two decades ago.”

Which places all the more importance on world leaders reaching an accord this year in talks now under way in Paris. More than 190 nations are participating in the United Nations Climate Conference, which began Monday and will run through Dec. 11. At last count, representatives from 170 of those countries arrived with pledges to support a pact to reduce carbon emissions.

Officially, the United States has pledged to cut emissions by 26 percent, compared with 2005 levels, by 2025. But many agree that’s not enough.

In terms of goals, California serves as a better model. This state already had some of the toughest carbon-cutting mandates on record before this fall, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed off on legislation that obligates the state to get 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and doubles the energy efficiency of existing buildings.

Meanwhile, Brown himself has taken the right approach in not waiting for leaders in Washington to act. He has taken the initiative in getting cities and states around the world to sign on to a climate pact calling to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

So far, he has garnered the support of 57 states and provinces from 19 countries. According to the governor’s office, the combined gross domestic products of those jurisdictions is larger than the economy of the United States.

The Paris talks demand a bold action plan. Brown is offering one.