Paris Accords and Climate Changes on the Cape in Focus Next Week

HARWICH – A special lecture on climate change and the effects it has on the world’s oceans and local waters will be held next week.

“From Paris to Pleasant Bay” will feature President and CEO of the Center for Coastal Studies Richard Delaney, who attended the Paris Accords summit on global climate change in December.

The accords brought together 196 presidents and prime ministers from around the world to sign a climate agreement with the goal of reducing plant-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

The lecture event kicks off the Cape Cod Collaborative on Climate Change, which looks to replicate the Paris accords at the local level.

“What I’m hoping we could launch here on Cape Cod is to have entities come together and make voluntary commitments to do their part to try to mitigate climate change impacts,” Delaney said. “We really need to take that global message and begin to implement it locally.”

Delaney said he attended the Paris Accords to make sure that the world’s oceans were well represented in the climate change discussions.

“The obvious point is the ocean drives climate and a warming climate is having major impacts on the health of the ocean ecosystems perhaps as intensely on Cape Cod as anywhere in the world,” he said.

Delaney said he wants to bring back the message from Paris that climate change isn’t something that is only happening in other places and that it is happening right here on Cape Cod.

According to studies, the oceans are warming globally and are warming even more in the Gulf of Maine than any perhaps any other location in the world.

“It just happens that climate change impacts are not equally and evenly distributed around the world,” Delaney said. “There are variations and unfortunately we happen to be in one of the hot spots.”

The event will be held Wednesday, June 8 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Wequassett Resort and Golf Club in Harwich.

The lecture is open to the public and to register for a seat email [email protected].

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter