Paris Climate Agreement 2015
Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding emission reduction targets (as well as sanctions for non-compliance) only for developed countries, the Paris Agreement requires all countries – rich, poor, developed and developing – to do their part and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, greater flexibility is built into the Paris Agreement: the commitments that countries should make are not otherwise worded, countries can voluntarily set their emission targets (NDCs) and countries are not subject to any penalty if they do not meet the proposed targets. What the Paris Agreement requires, however, is monitoring, reporting, and reassessing countries` individual and collective goals over time in order to bring the world closer to the broader goals of the agreement. And the agreement stipulates that countries must announce their next set of targets every five years – unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed at that target but did not contain a specific requirement to achieve it. The agreement stipulates that rich countries must continue to provide financial support to poor countries to address climate change and encourages other countries to join on a voluntary basis. Protesters gather near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The NDC partnership was launched at COP22 in Marrakech to strengthen cooperation so that countries have access to the technical knowledge and financial support they need to achieve large-scale climate and sustainability goals. The NDC Partnership is led by a Steering Committee composed of developed and developing countries as well as international institutions and supported by a support unit hosted by the World Resources Institute based in Washington, DC and Bonn, Germany. The NDC Partnership is jointly led by the governments of Costa Rica and the Netherlands and includes 93 member countries, 21 institutional partners and ten associate members. From 2 to 15 December 2019, a COP 25 MARATHON took place in Madrid, Spain, with Chile as President. When presenting a new round of NDCs in 2020, governments reiterated an earlier call for parties to reflect “their highest possible ambition,” but again failed to adopt rules for international emissions trading under Article 6, the last major part of the “settlement” implementing the Paris Agreement. In addition, vulnerable developing countries have expressed growing despair at the scarcity of resources available to them to cope with worsening climate impacts.
The agreement recognises the role of non-party stakeholders in the fight against climate change, including cities, other sub-national authorities, civil society, the private sector and others. Both the EU and its Member States are individually responsible for ratifying the Paris Agreement. It has been reported that the EU and its 28 Member States deposit their instruments of ratification at the same time to ensure that neither the EU nor its Member States commit to commitments that strictly belong to each other[71], and there have been fears that disagreement over each Member State`s share of the EU-wide reduction target, as well as the British vote to leave the EU may delay the Paris Pact. [72] However, the European Parliament approved the ratification of the Paris Agreement on 4 October 2016[60] and the EU deposited its instruments of ratification on 5 October 2016 with several EU Member States. [72] The main challenge in designing a US NDC will be to balance the need and desire for more ambition with the need to present a credible and sustainable NDC over time. The Biden campaign`s climate strategy aims for net-zero emissions by 2050, but it would be internationally counterproductive to present an NDC that the US cannot realistically achieve. It is therefore important that the US NDC is firmly anchored in domestic climate policy. However, it will take some time for a new Biden administration to consult (with Congress, domestic stakeholders, and the international community) and develop and implement strategies that could support an ambitious and sustainable NDC.
However, it is important to remember that the Paris Agreement is not static. Instead, it is designed to boost countries` national efforts over time – meaning that current commitments are the lower limit rather than the ceiling of climate change ambitions. The bulk of the work – reducing emissions even further by 2030 and 2050 – has yet to be done, and the agreement provides the tools to make that happen. Currently, 197 countries – every nation on earth, the last signatory being war-torn Syria – have adopted the Paris Agreement. Of these, 179 have solidified their climate proposals with formal approval – including the US for now. The only major emitting countries that have not yet officially joined the deal are Russia, Turkey and Iran. A study published in 2018 indicates a threshold at which temperatures could reach 4 or 5 degrees (ambiguous expression, continuity would be “4-5°C”) compared to pre-industrial levels, suggesting that this threshold is below the 2-degree temperature target agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement. Study author Katherine Richardson points out: “We find that the Earth has never had a near-stable state in its history that is about 2°C warmer than pre-industrial, and we suggest that there is a significant risk that the system itself will want to continue warming because of all these other processes – even if we stop emissions.
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