 Hello everyone. I am thrilled to welcome everyone joining us from around the globe for our event today. My name is Ashley Allen and I am a climate change officer at the U.S. State Department. Today we are going to discuss the policy landscape around a very important issue, an issue described by President Obama as a challenge that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other. That issue, of course, is climate change. This December, 195 nations will gather in Paris with a major task on their hands to negotiate a global agreement on climate change. We're joined today by the two people who are coordinating the effort to craft this agreement. They serve as the co-chairs for the centerpiece of the climate negotiations this year. In negotiations parlance, this is the so-called ad hoc working group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, or ADP. That's a mouthful. It's my pleasure to introduce them. Dr. Daniel Rief Snyder and Ambassador Ahmed Jogloff. Dan Rief Snyder is an American and has been leading international climate and environment efforts at the U.S. Department of State for 30 years. Ahmed Jogloff is an Algerian diplomat. He has led international efforts on biodiversity and served as a director with the Global Environment Facility. Thank you to both of our guests. And thank you to our viewers who are watching our live broadcast online and from U.S. embassies around the world. To ask our presenters a question online, please log into the live chat area beneath the video player on the web page or tweet hashtag Ask U.S. Center. In case you were wondering, the U.S. Center is the U.S. public outreach space at the U.N. Climate Talks. We feature a number of live events straight from the U.N. venue, so I encourage you to check us out again in December at youtube.com.uscenter. We will answer as many of your questions as possible throughout this program. Welcome, Dan. Welcome, Ahmed. I'd like to start our discussion with a very basic question. Can you tell us very simply what the climate negotiations are about and what is your role within them? Help us demystify this complex process. Dan, let's start with you. Okay, well, the climate change negotiations are about developing an agreement that would be applicable to all to address the climate, the threat of climate change in the post-2020 world. It has several aspects to it, though, because we're also dealing with the issue of pre-2020 action as well under Workstream 2. So I would say simply it's about trying to develop this agreement that parties agreed to do in December 2011 in Durban at the conference of the parties there. The one thing I would say is that I think it's a... Our role is really to try to assist the parties. It's a party-driven process, but our role is to try to assist the parties in moving forward. So I think, as Ahmed and I have discussed this a number of times, I think it requires doing everything that we can to help the process move forward, but doing nothing until it is needed. Okay, fascinating, fascinating. Ahmed, why don't we turn to you? Do you have anything to add to that very interesting explanation of the climate negotiations? It's very difficult for me to speak of Sardin, but I would make maybe one step back and say why are we negotiating this agreement? As you know, since the beginning of the 80s, the science has demonstrated that the human activities, what we call anthropogenic reason, have led to unprecedented concentration of emissions into the atmosphere, and in particular, six gases, but in particular the CO2, the deoxygen of carbon, and the metal. And therefore, it has been proven that these emissions are at the origin of what we are witnessing, major climate extreme events, drought, floodings, rays of sea level, and so on and so forth. Therefore, in the 80s, the international community has agreed that time has come to join forces in order to stabilize the emission of CO2 in order to limit the growth of temperature on the atmosphere. And they have adopted, in Rio in 1992, a framework convention based on the fact that those who have emitted the most, mainly at that time the developed countries, the industrialist countries, should take the lead and reduce their emission. The other, if they can, and if they receive money and technology, transfer of technologies, they can have. But it was not mandatory. But meanwhile, since 1992, the world has changed and the science has confirmed that if we don't do nothing, the rays of the temperature may lead to more than five degrees, which will have tremendous impact on the capacity of the planet to continue our sustaining life. So therefore, in Copenhagen in 2009, the international community started to attempt to adopt an agreement with the participation of all, and especially the new emitter of CO2 and greenhouse gases. It was not possible. Two years after, in Durban, an agreement has been reached that yes, we have to do it, and we have to limit the growth of temperature to no more than two degrees. And these imply the participation of all. So in 2011, a committee has been established to prepare a legally binding document with universal participation. No one left behind with the view of limiting the growth of temperature of no more than two degrees. They have agreed that this should be done in December 2015, and meanwhile Paris, France, has hosted. So therefore, it was agreed that by 2015, in December, the world will adopt a new universal agreement with the participation of all, with the view of limiting the rays of temperature to no more than two degrees. And two cultures have been appointed at the beginning, Norway and India, they change with Germany and Trinidad. And Dan and I had the immense privilege to be appointed in December, so therefore, to lead the process when the plan, the Boeing or the Airbus was landing, was about to land in Bourget where the conference will be held in December. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for taking us back and giving us some of the background. I know that our audience has a broad range of expertise, and some viewers tuning in maybe don't necessarily have a background on these issues. Could you speak to these people and tell them why the average global citizen should care about these negotiations? Let's start with Ahmed this time. Yeah, I think we should care because there's not a single citizen on the planet, the 7 billion, who are convinced that the temperature and the extreme event that we are witnessing, you know, we have seen last week in Guatemala, the landslide which led to thousands of people dying. You have seen in India in June and September and August 2,000 people dying due to headwave. We have seen in Europe in 2003 more than 70,000 people dying. The hurricane, I was last week with that in New York and he was afraid not to be able to fly to Washington because there was this alert and we have seen what happened with the American Sandy in New York, in Katrina in the US. And the fact is that for the last 30 years we had more than 8,000 extreme events and 90% are only due to climate change. These have led to climate refugees and some are of the view and these not some. It's the G7 commissioned a report on climate change and security that the crisis in Syria is due to climate change. There was a couple of years of severe drought which led to thousands of people fleeing the countryside and going to the capitals and to the urban area and Sudan for some are also is considered as the first climate change war. Mali and so on and so forth. The CIA, the Pentagon are telling us that climate change has now reached a dimension which lead to peace and security. Water scarcity has been identified as one of the major cause of tomorrow, war and conflict. And some are predicting that even nuclear war, a nuclear arm will be used to ensure the safety of the natural resources transport. Water scarcity, I'm coming from a country where severe drought is a major issue and the rainfall has been reduced by 32% since the independence 50 years ago with dramatic impact on food security. FAO are telling us that we're owing to climate change more than 50 million tons of agriculture products will be missing on the market due to the scarcity of water. Sea rise level, the expert are telling us that more than one meter of sea rise is expected. So therefore, small islands like Tuvalu, like Marshall Island, the Oasis, the small island states may disappear. Tuvalu has been the first country in the world to declare to all its population 30,000 requesting the status of refugees because they know that life will not be possible if the water continues to rise. Health, owing to air pollution, it is proven in Algeria, for example, we have every year more than 44,000 new cases of cancer and the experts are telling us that 25% of these causes of cancer are due to air pollution with air attack, asthma, respiratory diseases. So the ocean also, owing to the warming of the planet, the ocean is becoming more and more acid. For the last 30 years, the acidity of the ocean has increased by 30%. And if the situation will continue and if the ocean continue to absorb all these CO2s that are emitted, the old ocean will become acid. So therefore, marine life may disappear. So the consequences are far reaching and the solution doesn't lie in the government regardless of their size, but it's each and every citizen of the world that need to be engaged in this battle in order to ensure that life continues to prosper on the planet for us and for our children and the generation to come. Thank you, thank you. That is a long list of compelling reasons why we should all care about this issue and I, for one, am convinced. So let's go ahead and dive right into some of our questions from our online audience. I'll ask this one to you, Dan. When is the last date for submission of INDCs? And if you could maybe help us understand what these INDCs are and how that sort of fits into the process. Sure. An INDC is a term that's been coined in the, I think it was in Warsaw at our conference of the parties there a few years ago, it's an intended nationally determined contribution. These are the sum total of the efforts of each party to contribute to the solution, to contribute to trying to meet the objective of the convention. And the objective of the convention, I should just say, is to stabilize concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. More recently, as Ahmed pointed out in the answer to your first question, parties believe that we need to remain below two degrees or below 1.5 degrees C, centigrade of temperature rise in order to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. So intended nationally determined contributions, there was a call in Lima for parties to submit these as early as possible and if possible by the 31st of March this year. Many parties did so, but actually, the Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat is in the process of preparing an analysis and assessment of what all of these INDCs add up to in terms of the actions that countries are taking. The report they have to produce will be issued, I believe at the beginning of November, so beginning of next month, and in order to have all this information available to analyze it and to prepare this aggregate assessment, parties were aware that they needed to really get their INDCs in by the beginning of October, so the secretariat needed a month to do this analysis. So there was a big flurry of submissions that came in particular last week from many, many parties. I believe that I could be mistaken on the number, but I think now we're at a level of 148 parties that have submitted INDCs out of the 195 that you mentioned. So I think the response has been overwhelmingly positive and the secretariat is working actively now to try to prepare this first assessment of the aggregate of those actions by the beginning of November. So it sounds like these INDCs are what each country puts forward as its climate goal or climate actions. Is that a good way to summarize that? And you asked specifically about the date. There is no date really. I think we're very hopeful that the other parties who have not yet been able to submit INDCs will do so as soon as possible, but in terms of the analysis that the secretariat is preparing, the sort of cutoff date for that first look at this was the beginning of October. Yes, beginning of October. Great. Well, that actually leads very well to our next question, a follow-up from our online audience. What happens to these 50 or so countries that haven't submitted their INDCs? What happens if they don't submit INDCs? There's no specific requirement to submit an INDC. I think countries are doing this in recognition that as Ahmed said, we all have a part to play and everyone must seek in his or her own way how to contribute to the solution because it's a problem. You were asking previously, well, why should we care about this? I think really two reasons. One is because the impacts of climate change are going to be experienced by everybody globally in different ways, but everyone will feel them. And Ahmed was very detailed in telling you the many different ways this could happen. But in addition, the emissions of greenhouse gases in any part of the world affect the entire atmosphere. And so it doesn't matter where you are in admitting these emissions. All of the emissions add up and affect the atmosphere. So those reasons, everyone will experience the impacts and emissions anywhere are going to affect the atmosphere. Great. Well, thank you everyone online for those great questions. Let's keep them coming in. Keep asking them in the chat space below the video player or are on Twitter using hashtag ask us center. Can I intervene on this? Please, please. I think it's important. In Nigeria, we want to use the preparation of this contribution. And I can tell you that it is, and Nigeria is a middle income country, so quite significant capacity. But I can tell you that was not an easy exercise. So the countries that have not submitted, if you see the list, are those who are really not because they are not willing at the exception of few and I can come back to it. But they don't have the capacity. I was impressed, you know, Dan has referred to 148 countries that have submitted their IMDC, their contribution, that intended contribution for starting 2020. And Afghanistan, which is a country, you know, that is, I think, leaving a very difficult situation, has submitted IMDC. The poorest countries are still struggling to submit it. And there is no doubt in my mind, because the deadline is that during the entry into force of the agreement, which is expected to be in 2020, those who will adhere will have their contribution penalized. So I have no doubt in my mind that the international community as a whole will be ready when this plan will enter into force. We know that, for example, some OPEC countries have not yet submitted their contribution. But we know that this will be coming. There were some circumstances and I have no doubt because an agreement has been reached, as I said, in 2011 that this agreement will be universal. And it was based on a bottom up approach, which was different from the past approach. The past approach in Kyoto, for example, was a talk down. So someone decided that a number of countries, 42, I guess, will reduce by 5% their CO2 emissions. But for this process, which will make it quite significant and unique, it's the country that they determined in all sovereignty how they can make their contribution. And therefore I have no doubt, because an agreement has been reached in 2011 to have this agreement universal based on nationally determined contribution that all the 196 parties will be ready when this agreement will enter into force. So far, as Dan has said, we have 148 countries. So regardless of the number, I think it's more than 85% of the emission of the CO2 that have been the countries emitting more than 83% have submitted their INDC, which is just temporary, intentional, provisionally, and therefore it's a major, major breakthrough. And we applaud that. I take this opportunity on behalf of Dan and I to really congratulate the countries that have submitted their INDC, and especially those that have a significant contribution and I refer in particular to the U.S. to the U.N. order major contributor to these CO2 emissions. Thank you. Thank you, Ahmed, for that clarification. We appreciate that. Let's move in a slightly different direction now. We have a question from our online audience, Tomas, is asking about the role of the private sector. How does the climate agreement process deal with companies that pollute greenhouse gases? Dan, go ahead. Well, I think that there has been a recognition over the years. I've been dealing with this issue since 1989. And the father of the Kyoto Protocol used to observe that the action taking place outside the negotiating rooms was more interesting than the action that was taking inside sometimes. And he said, we have to find a way to bring the excitement and enthusiasm from the outside inside. I think there's been a recognition that what we're now referring to as non-state actors, and this includes all of civil society. It includes companies. It includes territories and states and cities and provinces. It includes the private sector and non-governmental organizations as well as academe. All have a role to play in this. And there's an increasing effort to try to not only to recognize the importance of engagement from all of those actors, but try to actually encourage them and find ways to facilitate the actions that they're taking. I think in this agreement, there will be recognition of the actions that have been taken. There will be recognition of the, there'll be an attempt to encourage further actions to be taken. And there is recognition as well through something called the Lima Paris Action Agenda, which was begun last year. And the NASCA portal, which is a web-based approach where individual actors can put forward the contributions that they are making. And these can be documented and these can be shared with others to encourage action and so forth. So the French this year, the French will host the COP in Paris. They have the presidency. They have four pillars of the actions, four pillars of this COP, I would say. One of the pillars are the INDCs that we've just talked about. Another one is the agreement that we're in the process of negotiating. A third one is climate finance, which is very important. And there's a big session going on this week in Lima with regard to climate finance outside of the agreement itself. But then the fourth pillar, and I think a very important one in their minds as well, in the minds of the French presidency and the Peruvian current presidency is the actions by non-state actors. And there will be a large area in Paris where there will be opportunities to share experiences and for the various non-state actors to come together and to share experiences and to meet with a wide variety of people. Great. Thank you. Ahmed, do you have a quick follow-up to that question on the role of the private sector? Yes. I think there are statistics which says that the companies that will not, that the company that will refuse to see the trends of the market of tomorrow will disappear in the future. So some are of the view that these climate change efforts or response will lead to huge economic loss. I tend to disagree because fossil fuel, be it coal, be it oil, be it gas, is limited and will disappear one day or another. So the sooner we start our transition towards a new source of permanent and renewable source of energy, the better. So it can lead to huge profit, huge investment in the right direction and in a sustainable manner without damaging the planet. And we have seen tremendous response of the market towards preparing towards this new economy because we are talking about a transition. And its transition in life or in institution or in country is generally painful because there are choices that you need to make and of course short-term setback and difficulty. But the long-term, everyone will gain in this transition towards a low carbon and economy of tomorrow, economy based on a renewable source of energy. And we have seen, as Dan has said, tremendous response of the market but also from the territories, from the mayors of the cities, from the provinces and from individuals and also universities that have decided to disinvest their fund, the investment fund and to put them in the right direction. So I am confident that the Paris Agreement will increase and will be a major step-change towards accelerating the transition towards a low-carbon economy. Great, thank you. And it's good to hear, Dan, that we'll have a chance in Paris to also hear the experiences from companies as part of that four-pillar approach. And many of those companies will hope to hear from the U.S. center. So be sure to tune into those events and we can hear directly from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Now I'd like to ask a question that goes directly to you, Ahmed. Our viewing group at the American Center in New Delhi asks, how will the climate conversation take into account the needs of developing countries? They mentioned development comes with a price tag, which is often harmful to the environment. How will developing countries be taken into account in this process? I think this is a basic, I think pillar of the current negotiation is that, of course, this will be a universal agreement with the participation of all and no one left behind on this agreement in this process. But taking fully into account the respective capacities and the responsibilities and the evolving responsibilities and national circumstances. So in this framework that the parties are negotiating, of course, it's universal, but taking fully into account that, for example, Haiti cannot have the same commitments and the same delivery of responsibility than the U.S. And the country like Vanuatu, for example, cannot have the same piece of response to this universal framework at the same level and the same time and the same nature than the European Union. Therefore, the principle that this commitment will be third towards based on the capacities and the circumstances, but also the evolution. The world of 1992, which led to the framework conversion on climate change is no more the world of 2015 and I'm convinced that the world of 2050 because we are talking about lasting and durable agreement will be completely different from the world of today and those who have emerged as a new emerging economy with major emission, as you know now China, is one of the biggest emitters of the world. Not to be taken into consideration. So it's a leaving adaptive agreement which will take into account the evolving situation of the world and therefore the evolving responsibility of those who are emitting these guys that are adorages of the climate change crisis. Great, thank you. I'm glad you mentioned China because I think something that's on everyone's minds is the relationship between the U.S. and China and how the various presidential statements that have come out affect this process. Dan, can you comment on the world's two biggest economies role in this process? Well, I think that many people have said that the actions of countries like the United States and China are critical because they send a signal to the other actors, those whose emissions may be less, of what is the direction, what is the path forward and what are those who are best situated to address this problem going to do about it. So the fact that the United States and China last November stood together, President Obama and President Xi and Beijing stood together and announced the actions that they intend to take I think was electric in the world. It's a very, very positive signal to the negotiators who met later in Lima of what they could expect and I think it presented a kind of challenge to other countries to step forward as well. If these two countries who so often in the past have had very distinct differences could come together in this way and take this action together, it's a very positive sign for the world, really. I think the other thing I should just mention the other thing that put wind in the sales in Lima last year was the fact that countries had also pledged $10.2 billion to the Green Climate Fund. The new fund that has been set up to begin to assist developing countries through the public sector funding in addition to the private sector efforts to meet this challenge. So I think both of those actions were very significant and really I say put wind in the sales of the parties last year in Lima and I think that wind still blows. Okay, thank you, thank you. Ahmed, do you have anything to add on the U.S.-China relationship? I cannot say but I will say it. I want really to pay tribute to the leadership of the President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama on climate change and I think as Diana said the initiative that the President of the U.S. has taken with China on the 12th of November last year has been a major step change in the negotiation and send a very strong signal that the two major economies of the world and therefore the two major pollution of the world are determined to assume their responsibilities and I think the announcement made in August about the airplane the decision on national plan for climate change last week followed up a statement between China and the U.S. during the visit of the President of China in Washington was also a terrific and fundamental I think step forward toward the principle that we just referred to that those who are the lead should take the lead in leading climate in economic and financial time called to the lead when it comes to climate change for example also the initiative that we have just heard about the visit of Angela Merkel in India we just referred to India and the two billion that Germany is going to to provide to assist India to accelerate his transition the French announcement also during the General Assembly about doubling their ODE on climate change these are terrific I think announcement that convinces that in Paris on the 11th of December hopefully at 6 o'clock we'll have a universal agreement but not only universal agreement but also at the same time identification of means and work program and deadline to ensure that this document will not know the same fate than the Kyoto protocol and will be something which will be implemented and something which will deliver an underground with the participation of all thank you well thanks for all these compelling questions coming in over the web please keep sending them in using the online chat space or hashtag ask us center so let's go back now to our online viewers for another question Darren power asks there are often spoilers in peace negotiations who basically try to obstruct the process how will you as the chairs deal with countries if they act in an obstructive manner at COP 21 getting into the interesting ones now go ahead Dan well as I mentioned earlier it's really the role of the co-chairs to help facilitate the discussions among the parties I think our sense as Ahmed was saying is that there is a strong will among all of the parties this year to reach an agreement in Paris I think that will is quite different from the situation that we faced in the run up to Copenhagen in 2009 and my sense is that if if there are any spoilers in this process if there are those who don't want to have an agreement I think their job is going to be very difficult because I think there are too many parties of north south east west and so forth all of whom want an agreement I think I don't think our job will be to try to enforce something I think the other parties will exert the pressure on them thank you Ahmed do you have anything to add to that what are your words of wisdom about the spoilers no really since I joined this process in January I have not seen really countries that are determined to derive the process quite the opposite I was overwhelmed by the commitments of all the parties without an exception to reach an agreement in Paris and this may make me very comfortable that in Paris you will have an agreement of course there are tremendous interests at stake of course there are different interests among the nuclear power country between the coal producer and the consumer country between the oil and gas and the renewable those who have the technology but these are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed and I think as a culture we need to listen to them and I think we have tried in producing this document this week to make sure that no one is left behind and it's up to the parties to negotiate and to ensure that their interests are protected based on the fact that we are all in agreement to reach the objective of this process therefore the meaning to limit the growth of temperature of no more than 2 and hopefully 1.5 degrees but I am extremely confident that in Paris we will not see any obstruction or a party trying to derive the process because the document that will be before the COP when it starts on the 30th of November through the good work of this preparatory committee that is led by Dan and I will have tremendous progress and we will have two or three basic and key issues that need to be addressed not by the negotiator the chief negotiator but by the politician therefore we are also very much reassured by the fact that the incumbent presidency has decided not to wait until December the last week to involve the politician the minister but they have initiated as early as July this year an informal process where the minister have been familiarized with the issues and therefore are being prepared to take the necessary hard choice and hard decision that are required during the second week of the conference where it will be at ministerial level. Thank you. Now we have a question from our American center in Kolkata turning back to the finance issue that Dan had mentioned earlier how can countries that are large emitters but also still developing like India finance their mitigation efforts will the agreement take this into account and Dan I'll turn to you since you had mentioned that earlier. Yes I would say absolutely the agreement will take it into account it's a very major piece of what is under negotiation now. There was a pledge that you may recall from Copenhagen that the countries pledged a hundred billion dollars a year by 2020 to try to assist parties in the context of meaningful action on mitigation and adaptation to try to assist parties who need this funding to take these actions and what we're seeing is a recognition I think in the INDCs that many of the actions are actions that the countries will take themselves without any kind of assistance from others but by the same token there will be additional actions that will require funding if we're to achieve the kind of action on climate change that we all would like to see so the funding is going to be quite critical I think that the hundred billion is the amount pledged up to the year 2020 there are many questions about well how will we get there is there a pathway to this but I think it's a combination of both public sector funds and private sector funds mobilized investment in climate friendly technologies, climate friendly approaches so I think this is certainly a very big piece of the negotiations going forward but I'm confident that we're going to solve that Thank you. Do you have anything to add on climate finance? What India has submitted as INDC and what India is doing in terms of clean energy what they call the clean India by the Prime Minister Modi is really amazing and the amount of money that they have decided to put aside for the implementation of their INDC it's remarkable and they are talking about 1.4 trillion dollars for the 10 years for the implementation of the INDC and they are not saying that this 1.7 I think trillion have to be provided by the international community they are saying that they are doing it by their own but of course they need assistance if you take this 148 INDCs that have been submitted I'm not talking about industrialized countries but from developing countries all of them without an exception have identified their own action that will be implemented without with or without financial or technological support of capacity building I think the case of my country the INDC submitted by Algeria for see that by the end of 2030 will have more than 27% of all our electricity from renewable energy and these with or without financial support and of course if we receive more through this GCF and welcome the establishment and the operationalization of this great fund which is unique and additional technology we can do more and this is the case of all developing countries and these I think give you an idea of the paradigm shift that we are witnessing this was not the case in Rio this was not the case in Kyoto where developing countries were saying I will do something if I receive money and this time I think each and every party of the 196 do acknowledge that they have a responsibility and they are committed to fulfill this responsibility and of course those in need of assistance will require financial resources, they will require capacity building they will require transfer of technology in a concessional term in order for them to expedite the transition toward a low carbon economy great thank you well now we will turn to a question from an online viewer focused on the draft agreement which I believe came out this week the viewer asks inclusion of agriculture is of great interest to African countries African countries excuse me but the draft agreement does not address agriculture how can we ensure that agriculture is included in the new climate agreement well thanks Ashley you mentioned that the draft agreement came out this week I should clarify what came out this week was a non paper that Ahmed and I put together under our responsibility and we have proposed this to the parties it is our hope that they will find it useful in the discussions coming up in bond on the 19th of October but it has no status at the moment so to say that the non paper does not address agriculture I just want to say that the text does not address agriculture this is not a text that has been agreed by anyone at this point first of all, second of all I think it is a mistake to say that the text that we prepared that the non paper does not address agriculture because agriculture is critical both in adaptation and in mitigation it is critical in adaptation because we need to develop agricultural practices and seeds and approaches that can survive in a warmer climate and there is a great deal of research taking place in that area now we have also agriculture is critical to mitigation because agriculture and soil is a sink for so much carbon dioxide so I think that it is very well recognized that agriculture plays a critical role in climate change both from the standpoint of adaptation and mitigation we provide in this text for cooperation in technology cooperation in capacity building and for finance and so forth there are many ways this comes in but the agreement does not specify the particular actions that countries will take that is up to each country in its INDC so to the extent that a country wishes to identify actions in agriculture as part of either a contribution with regard to mitigation I think that is perfectly open to that country and there is no prohibition against that but in addition I would just point out that the work that we are doing under this agreement that we propose to undertake under this agreement is not the only thing that has been done over the past as you mentioned 30 years with respect to climate change we have a whole series of decisions and actions that have been taken under the framework conventional and climate change every year for ever since the first conference of the parties in 1995 and many of those decisions also deal with agriculture I know this was a big issue for example in Durban where I led the effort under the long-term the ad hoc group on long-term cooperative action the group that preceded the ADP so I would just say do not fear agriculture is a major piece of the answer to climate change thank you and Ahmed do you have anything to add on agriculture in the agreement I think Dan has said it all this text is not the agreement it has been produced based on the mandate that we have received and I when we close the last meeting on the 4th of September and the parties requested the culture to prepare a non-paper containing a basis of negotiation on containing of course the draft agreement but also the work program covering the entire period between the end of the conference on the element of December 2015 and the 4th of the agreement in 2020 so it's the basis and as Dan has said it's not a sectoral agreement as Dan has said the agreement is based on country priorities and the INDC and when they are finalized and this is the national the final contribution will indicate the priorities of the government and it's not right to say that agriculture has not been referred to I think if you see the preambular it makes a clear reference on the and transsexual relationship between climate change poverty alleviation poverty eradication and sustainable development and the decision on those fully the result of the heads of states which was held last week after you know years of processes the new agenda the post 2015 agenda the 2013 sustainable development agenda and it's fully on those the result and of course there are many goals that are of direct relevance not only to agriculture but also to vital issues like water like infrastructure like land degradation like restoration of land and so on and so forth and even the preambular of the decision make a reference to restoration of land which is critical to food security and make also a reference to food security but not go to the detail because this agreement is not adopted under the FAO which is the specialized agencies existing since 45 and they are the legitimate body to implement and to operationalize this agreement from an agricultural to a state fund when it is adopted when we attend to work which is the case of course of the World Health Organization to operationalize the principle and the basis of the agreement from a health perspective when the General Assembly of the Health Organization will meet and this is the case for all the UN specialized agencies to make their contribution to assist countries implementing their INDC and their priorities to meet agriculture or meet other issues when during the implementation phase and each and every organization will have a role to play of the UN and therefore all the UN with its 70 years of experience based on all the specialized sectors will have to contribute to assist the 196 bodies to operationalize and to ensure the early not only the early entry into force but also the implementation and following phase of the contribution of the member states Thank you and I understand that we'll have an event on climate smart agriculture to get into a few more of these issues on December 2nd at the US center so for those of you who want more information on how that all plays out please tune in then Now let's get down to practical action so our viewing group in Pretoria, South Africa asks what is being done to stop climate change right now for example least developing countries are seeing access to natural resources jeopardized what can be done to curb the negative effects of climate change and let's start with Aknet Yeah tremendous things are happening I guess for I have assisted the summit last year in 2014 of what we called the Ban Ki Moon summit and I was impressed and overwhelmed by the tremendous announcement made by the CEOs of companies made by territories by government, by coalition by bank, by a financial institution in order to address climate change I think not try to think that nothing is being done and we have to wait until the force of the agreement tremendous things are being done and I think like Dan has said when it comes to this Paris action agenda tremendous things are happening you will see also in Paris when there is this action date the announcement that will be made by all the partner and stakeholders in order to expedite and to accelerate the transition and the implementation of this agreement and also by individuals so therefore we are extremely encouraged and of course the agreement and with the participation of heads of states in Paris will accelerate and will give a new impetus to the tremendous things that are happening on the ground to address climate change Thank you and go ahead Dan Well Ashley I would just say I think this agreement has a very important role to play in focusing attention on the problems bringing all actors into the equation bringing all actions forward so that when we signal that there is a long term trend that the world is on a path to really address climate change in a serious way and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to change investment patterns away from subsidies for example for fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and so forth I think this sends a very strong signal to the private sector and to others and that is in effect those changes in investment in finance, financial flows and so forth are going to change the world and have a very positive effect we think on natural resources Great, thank you Now I'd like to give a special shout out to our viewing group in Kolkata for joining us I think we have a photo of the group that we are able to show right now so a big shout out to that group thanks so much for joining the program Let's turn now to a question from online focused on the economy so the economy of some countries is heavily dependent on the production of fossil fuels how does the agreement take this into account while encouraging those economies to reduce their emissions and Dan maybe we'll start with you Well I think that fossil fuels have been the mainstay of energy production in the world for many years and I think it will continue for some period of time but the issue is how can we use these fossil fuels in a way that doesn't create a problem for the atmosphere one of the principle ways that there's a lot of interest and excitement about this is carbon capture use and storage I will say it used to be known as carbon capture and storage I think someone in China said to me at one point no it's carbon capture use and storage because there may be uses for the greenhouse gases that are captured I think that's a very promising area it's an area that's being used now for enhanced oil recovery by pumping carbon dioxide into depleted oil wells you can pump out more oil there's efforts that I know between the United States and China to look at actually using carbon dioxide for reverse osmosis to try to produce water from ground water supplies through a reverse osmosis type of process so there's some very interesting very promising technologies but in addition I think that the agreement and one of the things we've been made very conscious of in recent years is the potential adverse impact of response measures measures that countries take to address climate change may have adverse impacts on countries that are strongly dependent on exports of oil coal or natural gas and so there is awareness of those concerns there's awareness of those problems in parties where you have a choice of taking an action in a way that doesn't harm someone else or that might I think it's incumbent on people to try to choose the path that is less less likely to affect the interests of those countries so I think there are ways to address these problems and I think those have been recognized under the framework convention and in the negotiations that we have on going now Great, thank you and Ahmed, what do you have about countries that have fossil fuel based economies how does this affect them? Algeria is a country depending I think 98% from its revenue from oil, export of oil and gas so the whole economy is very much dependent on fossil fuel and if you look at the INDC we have not said that we have to wait until the end of the availability of gas and oil in order to start thinking about the transition towards a diversified economy less dependent on the export of oil and gas and we have said that by 2037% of all the electricity will come from renewable energy and especially from solar and geothermal energy and because we realize that you have to do it and of course you have the choice of continuing depending exclusively on your export of oil and gas until the resources is depleted and facing tremendous problem when you will have no more resources to finance your economy and your needs or start right away the transition and I think Algeria which is also the case of a number of other countries have decided to initiate right away the transition of course there is pain which is associated to any transition but in the long run and as we are talking about sustainable use of energy and sustainable development we will win from the long term because we will be anchoring our economy based not on no renewable source of energy but on a permanent source of energy and this of course will create new opportunities, new job opportunities new avenue for trade and commercialization of the solar and geothermal energy to outside, to Africa to African country and elsewhere so huge possibilities are open and as Dan I said the issue of response measures are being addressed the issue of loss and damage are being addressed in this agreement but in the long run we will all gain fossil oil coal producer will all gain from the implementation of this agreement and we will all gain towards an economy which is less CO2 emission great thank you now we only have a few minutes left in this very engaging program and I want to be sure to have two more questions so I'll ask you to keep your answers brief to these final two questions so first we have a twitter user named smart girls from Africa or smart girls Africa I think is the twitter handle how are youth involved in crafting this new climate agreement and Ahmed I'll ask you first how are youth involved we have at each our meeting Dan and I are meeting with what we call the state called the major group of the UN since Rio and the youth are part and parcel of this in addition Dan and I have lunch here in Montreal on the 17th of September with the prime minister of Quebec fantastic initiative to engage the children and the youth in this process we call it draw the earth this in later which is amazing I think companion in order to engage the citizens of tomorrow the children of today bringing their voice to the attention of heads of states and will encourage all the children of the world to take part of this fantastic initiative by Jean-Lémire the ambassador of the UN on the green wave which is campaign to engage youth and children on issues related to environment in order to assure that their voice is being heard in Paris by the policy makers and the students. Actually if I could I would just mention that I've taken the year off this year and I'm serving as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia I was just there yesterday meeting with students in two different classes and including a woman who's going to have the sustain us effort in Paris this year so we talk as Ahmed said frequently with students the issue of the intergenerational aspect of this we cannot be ignored this is an agreement about the future it's an agreement about the youth and it's about the planet we will leave to them in the future so I think people are quite conscious of of that aspect of this negotiation and this effort and they're very centrally involved. Okay I think Dan I'll just ask you this one so that I can fit one more question at the end the American Center in New Delhi asks what are the penalties for countries that fail to abide by an agreement? Well let me say that when people fail to abide by international agreements I think what we found under other international agreements dealing with environmental questions it's not a question of any kind of conscious effort not to abide by the agreement but an inability to meet the terms of the agreement and when we've had problems in other areas we've said okay you've failed to meet this condition what is the reason behind that why are you doing this and in most cases it's not a lack of will it's a lack of ability lack of means or know-how or finance or various kinds of things like that so the emphasis under this agreement is not on penalties for non-compliance it's on facilitation how to help people comply because we all have an interest in the planet we all this is our home we all have an interest in safeguarding the planet the point is how do you help people to achieve that compliance that will help safeguard the planet which is after all their home too Thank you and I'll ask for your brief answers to this final question if we reach an agreement in Paris is that it do we solve climate change is that the end? Ahmed Not at all we are saying that Paris is not the end of the road it's right at the opposite meaning of a new journey and therefore we have in this document that we have made public we have also highlighted the roadmap after Paris and before that and of course after that it's a new journey it's not the end of it and I will just comment on your last question for someone who has spent all his life on environmental issues I don't believe in punitive action I believe on education some civilization we have a thousand and million of laws to prevent criminalities and it's not for this reason that the prison are empty but by educating by sensitivizing by engaging the people I think we will make the difference. What about you Dan what's next? Well having worked on this issue since as I said I like to say I've been working on this in this process since before there was a process since 1989 in the first meetings of the intergovernmental panel on climate I know that this is an issue that's going to continue well beyond my tenure and well beyond the meeting in Paris I think what we're trying to do at this point is take a new turn a positive turn for the future but there is there is much work to do and the young people today who are out there who are wondering what is the future for me there's an awful lot of work in this area it's going to be a great growth and a great employment opportunity so I would encourage people to get involved. Thank you thank you well unfortunately we've run out of time but I'd absolutely like to thank our guest in studio Dan Reeve Snyder as well as Ahmed Jogloff who joined us remotely from Montreal so thank you for joining us and a big thank you to our online viewers from around the world who participated in this chat and submitted all of those great questions I think we hit every topic we could have hit in an hour this program would not be possible without your participation and your interest in this important issue now although this particular chat is over you can continue to participate in our discussion on Twitter by using hashtag ask us center and don't forget to come back here to the climate partners website and to visit our us center YouTube page where we will stream climate related events live beginning November 30th goodbye for now everyone and thank you