Propositions:
1. Regulations designed to protect the environment and halt or reverse human influence on the environment are major deterrents to significant architectural design.
2. Protecting the environment and dealing with climate change and the associated regulations represent important and useful tools in creating significant architecture.
Overview
This new global framework creates the groundwork for countries to collaborate in order to keep global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, and it sets an ambitious goal to go even beyond. This Agreement provides a powerful signal to the private sector that the global economy is shifting toward clean energy, and that we can accomplish our climate goals while creating new jobs, rising living standards, and pulling millions out of poverty through innovation and inventiveness.
The Paris Agreement is also the conclusion of a larger movement by states, corporations, communities, and people to realign the global economy toward low-carbon development, progress that will be accelerated by the Agreement’s measures on climate change.
This announcement marks a watershed moment in the US-China relationship. The world’s two largest economies, energy users, and carbon emitters are bridging longstanding boundaries and collaborating to show global leadership on a problem that affects everyone.
By making this announcement well ahead of the UNFCCC negotiations’ deadline, the two leaders demonstrated their commitment to reducing the harmful emissions that are warming our planet and encouraged other world leaders to follow suit by offering strong national targets ahead of the final negotiations in Paris.
In November 2014, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping made a historic joint announcement on climate change in Beijing, emphasizing their personal commitment to a successful climate agreement in Paris and ushering in a new era of multilateral climate diplomacy as well as a new pillar in their bilateral relationship. On the occasion of President Xi’s State Visit to Washington, D.C., the two Presidents underline their shared view that climate change is one of the most serious challenges to mankind, and that their respective countries must play a crucial role in solving it.