Stories: Luxury Travel Peru

In June of 1992 the first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. This treaty delineated goals for stabilizing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere without risking human interference with the climate and was enacted in 1994. The states that signed the treaty are called ‘Parties’, and now there are 195 Parties that will meet for the twentieth Convention of Parties (COP) in Lima, Peru. From December 1st to the 12th COP20 Climate Change Conference will take place at the Westin Hotel and Convention Center in Lima’s San Isidro district.  1,951 representatives from governments across the globe will gather to draft the Sustainable Development Goals that will be signed in 2015 in Paris, setting the global environmental agenda for the next decade. The COP is the “supreme decision-making body of the Convention” and each state has a representative. The COP will review the goals determined at the conference and will decide the most effective means to implement these goals. This year the conference will concentrate on four key areas: adaptation, climate finance, mitigation and technology. The spotlight will be on Peru as the host of this year’s conference. Peru will depend greatly on domestic and global greenhouse gas reduction in order to maintain its delicate ecosystems intact. Home to 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, since 1970 Peru has lost 39% of these glaciers. Since 1880 the global temperature has increased by 0.85°C, and the water produced by melting glaciers around the world is just one of the causes behind the 19cm rise in the oceans. Additionally, the Peruvian Amazon is the third largest expanse of tropical forest in the world after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rich in resources and biological