Paris Agreement, 2015
Adoption of Paris Agreement
• At COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015, Parties to the UNFCCC reached a
landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify
the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.
• The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention and – for the first time – brings
all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate
change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing
countries to do so.
• The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the
threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well
below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit
the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• Additionally, the agreement aims to increase the ability of countries to deal with
the impacts of climate change, and at making finance flows consistent with a low
GHG emissions and climate-resilient pathway.
• To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate mobilization and provision of
financial resources, a new technology framework and enhanced capacity-building
is to be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most
vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement
also provides for an enhanced transparency framework for action and support.
• The Paris Agreement opened for signature on 22 April 2016 – Earth Day –
at UN Headquarters in New York.
• It entered into force on 4 November 2016, 30 days after the so-called
“double threshold” (ratification by 55 countries that account for at least
55% of global emissions) had been met.
• 191 Parties out of 197 Parties to the Convention are Parties to the Paris
Agreement.
• The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts
through “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen
these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all
Parties report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation
efforts.
• There will also be a global stocktake every 5 years to assess the collective
progress towards achieving the purpose of the agreement and to inform
further individual actions by Parties.
Provisions
• Long-term temperature goal (Art. 2) – The Paris Agreement, in seeking to strengthen
the global response to climate change, reaffirms the goal of limiting global
temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to limit
the increase to 1.5 degrees.
• Global peaking and 'climate neutrality' (Art. 4) –To achieve this temperature goal,
Parties aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as soon as
possible, recognizing peaking will take longer for developing country Parties, so as to
achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks
of GHGs in the second half of the century.
• Mitigation (Art. 4) – The Paris Agreement establishes binding commitments by all
Parties to prepare, communicate and maintain a nationally determined contribution
(NDC) and to pursue domestic measures to achieve them. It also prescribes that
Parties shall communicate their NDCs every 5 years and provide information
necessary for clarity and transparency. To set a firm foundation for higher ambition,
each successive NDC will represent a progression beyond the previous one and reflect
the highest possible ambition. Developed countries should continue to take the lead
by undertaking absolute economy-wide reduction targets, while developing countries
should continue enhancing their mitigation efforts, and are encouraged to move
toward economy-wide targets over time in the light of different national
circumstances.
• Sinks and reservoirs (Art.5) –The Paris Agreement also encourages Parties to conserve and
enhance, as appropriate, sinks and reservoirs of GHGs as referred to in Article 4, paragraph
1(d) of the Convention, including forests.
• Voluntary cooperation/Market- and non-market-based approaches (Art. 6) – The Paris
Agreement recognizes the possibility of voluntary cooperation among Parties to allow for
higher ambition and sets out principles – including environmental integrity, transparency and
robust accounting – for any cooperation that involves internationally transferal of mitigation
outcomes. It establishes a mechanism to contribute to the mitigation of GHG emissions and
support sustainable development, and defines a framework for non-market approaches to
sustainable development.
• Adaptation (Art. 7) – The Paris Agreement establishes a global goal on adaptation – of
enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate
change in the context of the temperature goal of the Agreement. It aims to significantly
strengthen national adaptation efforts, including through support and international
cooperation. It recognizes that adaptation is a global challenge faced by all. All Parties should
engage in adaptation, including by formulating and implementing National Adaptation Plans,
and should submit and periodically update an adaptation communication describing their
priorities, needs, plans and actions.
• Loss and damage (Art. 8) – The Paris Agreement recognizes the importance of averting,
minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate
change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events, and the role of sustainable
development in reducing the risk of loss and damage. Parties are to enhance understanding,
action and support, on a cooperative and facilitative basis with respect to loss and damage
associated with the adverse effects of climate change.
• Finance, technology and capacity-building support (Art. 9, 10 and 11) – The
Paris Agreement reaffirms the obligations of developed countries to
support the efforts of developing country Parties to build clean,
climate-resilient futures, while for the first time encouraging voluntary
contributions by other Parties. Provision of resources should also aim to
achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation. In addition to
reporting on finance already provided, developed country Parties commit to
submit indicative information on future support every two years, including
projected levels of public finance. The agreement also provides that the
Financial Mechanism of the Convention, including the Green Climate Fund
(GCF), shall serve the Agreement. International cooperation on climate-safe
technology development and transfer and building capacity in the
developing world are also strengthened: a technology framework is
established under the Agreement and capacity-building activities will be
strengthened through, inter alia, enhanced support for capacity building
actions in developing country Parties and appropriate institutional
arrangements. Climate change education, training as well as public
awareness, participation and access to information (Art 12) is also to be
enhanced under the Agreement.
• Climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation
and public access to information (Art 12) is also to be enhanced under the
Agreement.
• Transparency (Art. 13), implementation and compliance (Art. 15) – The Paris
Agreement relies on a robust transparency and accounting system to provide clarity on
action and support by Parties, with flexibility for their differing capabilities of Parties.
In addition to reporting information on mitigation, adaptation and support, the
Agreement requires that the information submitted by each Party undergoes
international technical expert review. The Agreement also includes a mechanism that
will facilitate implementation and promote compliance in a non-adversarial and
non-punitive manner, and will report annually to the CMA.
• Global Stocktake (Art. 14) – A “global stocktake”, to take place in 2023 and every 5
years thereafter, will assess collective progress toward achieving the purpose of the
Agreement in a comprehensive and facilitative manner. It will be based on the best
available science and its long-term global goal. Its outcome will inform Parties in
updating and enhancing their actions and support and enhancing international
cooperation on climate action.
• Decision 1/CP.21 also sets out a number of measures to enhance action prior to 2020,
including strengthening the technical examination process, enhancement of provision
of urgent finance, technology and support and measures to strengthen high-level
engagement. For 2018 a facilitative dialogue is envisaged to take stock of collective
progress towards the long-term emission reduction goal of Art 4. The decision also
welcomes the efforts of all non-Party stakeholders to address and respond to climate
change, including those of civil society, the private sector, financial institutions, cities
and other subnational authorities. These stakeholders are invited to scale up their
efforts and showcase them via the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action platform
INDC - NDC
• To achieve the Paris Agreement’s original objectives, 186 countries—responsible
for more than 90 percent of global emissions—submitted carbon reduction
targets, known as “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs), prior
to the Paris conference.
• These targets outlined each country’s commitments for curbing emissions
(including through the preservation of carbon sinks) through 2025 or 2030,
including economy-wide carbon-cutting goals.
• INDCs turn into NDCs—nationally determined contributions—once a country
formally joins the agreement. There are no specific requirements about how or
how much countries should cut emissions, but there have been political
expectations about the type and stringency of targets by various countries based
on the latest science. As a result, national plans vary greatly in scope and
ambition, largely reflecting each country’s capabilities, its level of development,
and its contribution to emissions over time.
• China, for example, committed to leveling off its carbon emissions no later than
2030.
• India set its sights on cutting emissions intensity by 33 to 35 percent below 2005
levels and generating 40 percent of its electricity from non–fossil fuel sources by
2030.
• The United States had committed to cutting overall greenhouse gas emissions by
26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Transparency
• The enhanced transparency rules apply common frameworks for all
countries, with accommodations and support provided for nations that
currently lack the capacity to strengthen their systems.
• Among other requirements, countries must report their greenhouse gas
inventories and progress relative to their targets, allowing outside experts to
evaluate their success. Countries are also expected to revisit their pledges
and put forward progressively stronger targets every five years, with the
goal of further driving down emissions.
• Nations must participate in a “global stocktake” to measure collective efforts
toward meeting the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals as well.
• Meanwhile, developed countries also have to estimate how much financial
assistance they’ll allocate to developing nations to help them reduce
emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
• These transparency and accountability provisions are similar to those in the
frameworks of other international agreements.
• While the system doesn’t include financial penalties, the requirements are
aimed at making the progress of individual nations easy to track and
fostering a sense of global peer pressure, discouraging any dragging of feet
among countries that may consider doing so.
Mobilize support for climate change
mitigation
• Recognizing that many developing countries and small island nations that have
contributed the least to climate change could suffer the most from its consequences,
the Paris Agreement includes a plan for developed countries—and others “in a
position to do so”—to continue to provide financial resources to help developing
countries mitigate and increase resilience to climate change.
• For instance, India’s pledge includes the need to eradicate poverty in parallel with
decreasing emissions and increasing renewable energy, such as addressing energy
poverty and access in remote villages that rely on diesel generators.
• With technological and financial help from wealthier countries, important
equity-focused goals such as these can be within reach.
• The Paris Agreement builds on the financial commitments of the 2009 Copenhagen
Accord, which aimed to scale up public and private climate finance for developing
nations to $100 billion a year by 2020. The Copenhagen pact also created the Green
Climate Fund to help mobilize transformational private finance using targeted public
dollars.
• The Paris Agreement established the expectation that the world would set a higher
annual goal by 2025 to build on the $100 billion target for 2020 and would put
mechanisms in place to achieve that scaling up. Unfortunately, collective contributions
continue to fall short, reaching approximately $79 billion in 2019.
Global warming can be mitigated only
with global action
• The IPCC notes that climate change will be limited only by “substantial and
sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” While one can debate the
merits of using a single global temperature threshold to represent dangerous
climate change, the general scientific view today—represented in the IPCC’s
Special Report: Global Warming at 1.5 Degrees Celsius—is that any rise in global
temperatures of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius would be an unacceptably high
risk, potentially resulting in major extinctions, more severe droughts and
hurricanes, a watery Arctic, and an increased toll on human health and well-being.
• Furthermore, as the IPCC has noted, while it remains uncertain precisely how
much global warming will “trigger abrupt and irreversible changes” in the earth’s
systems, the risk of crossing the threshold only increases as temperatures rise.
• To avoid major changes to life as we know it, global action must be taken. At the
Paris climate conference, all countries committed to a target of keeping the
temperature change to well below 2 degrees and to make efforts to prevent a
change greater than 1.5 degrees.
• Unfortunately, the emissions gap—the emissions level with existing commitments
compared to a safer trajectory—is still dangerously large as of 2020. Every tenth of
a degree matters, and we cannot prevent this unless we act immediately to cut
emissions deeply.
Kyoto Protocol versus the Paris
Agreement
While the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement both set out to address climate
change, there are some key differences between them.
• Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which established top-down legally binding
emissions reduction targets (as well as penalties for noncompliance) for
developed nations only, the Paris Agreement requires that all
countries—rich, poor, developed, and developing—do their part and slash
greenhouse gas emissions. To that end, greater flexibility and national
ownership is built into the Paris Agreement: No language is included about
the commitments countries should make; nations can set their own
emissions targets (NDCs) consistent with their level of development and
technological advancement.
• While the Paris Agreement doesn’t have harsh penalties for countries not
meeting their targets, it does have a robust system of monitoring, reporting,
and reassessing individual and collective country targets over time in order to
move the world closer to the broader objectives of the deal. And the
agreement sets forth a requirement for countries to announce their next
round of targets every five years—unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed for
that objective but didn’t include a specific requirement to achieve it.
Beyond Paris
• While the Paris Agreement ultimately aims to cap global temperature rise at 1.5
degrees Celsius in this century, many studies evaluating the national pledges countries
made in Paris show that the cumulative effect of those emissions reductions won’t be
large enough to keep temperatures under that limit.
• Indeed, the targets that countries laid out are expected to limit future temperature
rise to approximately 2.9 degrees Celsius.
• Meanwhile, despite temporary emissions drops related to changes in production and
travel associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, current evaluations of how countries
are performing in the context of their Paris climate goals indicate some nations are
already falling short of their commitments.
• However, it’s important to remember the Paris Agreement isn’t static. Instead, it’s
designed to boost countries’ national efforts over time—meaning that current
commitments represent the floor, not the ceiling, of climate change ambition.
• The heavy lifting—reining in emissions even further by 2030 and 2050—still needs to
be done, and the accord provides the tools and pressure to make that happen.
• As the Paris Agreement matures, nations including the United States must firmly
commit to phasing out fossil fuel investment (locally and abroad) and investing
in nature-based solutions.
• Often, the communities who contribute least to global emissions are the ones
already showing wealthier nations the way, committing to rapid emissions reductions,
renewable energy expansion, protecting their forests, and putting economies on
low-carbon pathways.
• Nations must uplift these communities as well as those who are faced with the brunt
of climate impacts. This includes formally protecting Indigenous knowledge and rights,
which are critical to fighting the climate crisis. Indigenous peoples—comprising 5% of
the global population—protect 80% of the planet’s biodiversity.
• Even without stronger recognition within the Paris Agreement, Indigenous and
frontline communities are building a global movement and successfully fighting back
against extractive, climate-damaging industries, including fossil-fuel
pipelines, logging, dams, and mining.
• Reflecting the collective belief of nearly every nation on earth that climate change is
humanity’s race to win, the Paris Agreement exposes America’s climate
skeptics as global outliers.
• In fact, the mobilization of support for climate action across the country and around
the world provides hope that the Paris Agreement marked a turning point in the global
race against climate change.
• We can all contribute to the cause by seeking opportunities to slash global warming
contributions—at the individual, local, and national levels—but we understand better
than ever that individual action is not enough.
• The next Conference of the Parties is currently scheduled for November 2021 in
Glasgow.
• The aims of COP 26 will be to assess the progress made under the Paris Agreement and
to encourage countries to enhance their original NDCs into greater alignment with
current climate science.
• While COP 26 was postponed due to COVID-19, the delay gives countries time to
develop more ambitious targets and accelerate low-carbon actions to ensure a green
and resilient recovery from COVID-19.
