All about Paris Agreement under UNFCCC

Paris Agreement under UNFCCC

ü     The Paris Agreement (French: L'accord de Paris) is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020. 
The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015.

ü As of Oct 4 2016, 180 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty, 62 of which have ratified it.

 The agreement will only enter into force provided that 55 countries that produce at least 55% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions ratify, accept, approve or accede to the agreement.

The head of the Paris Conference, France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius, said this "ambitious and balanced" plan is a "historic turning point" in the goal of reducing global warming.

Nationally determined contributions NDC & their Limits

The contribution that each individual country should make in order to achieve the worldwide goal are determined by all countries individually and called "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs). Article 3 of the agreement requires them to be "ambitious", "represent a progression over time" and set "with the view to achieving the purpose of this Agreement"

The contributions should be reported every five years and are to be registered by the UNFCCC Secretariat. Each further ambition should be more ambitious than the previous one, known as the principle of 'progression'.

 Countries can cooperate and pool their nationally determined contributions. The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions pledged during the 2015 Climate Change Conference serve—unless provided otherwise—as the initial Nationally determined contribution.

The level of NDCs set by each country will set that country's targets. However the 'contributions' themselves are not binding as a matter of international law, as they lack the specificity, normative character, or obligatory language necessary to create binding norms. Furthermore, there will be no mechanism to force a country to set a target in their NDC by a specific date and no enforcement if a set target in an NDC is not met.

Paris Climate Deal: Key Points

Keeping temperature rises below 1.5C - Governments have agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels Pledges to curb emissions - Before the conference started, more than 180 countries had submitted pledges to cut or curb their carbon emissions (intended nationally defined contributions, or INDCs, in the UN jargon)Long-term global goal for net zero emissions - Countries have promised to try to bring global emissions down from peak levels as soon as possible.

More significantly, they pledged “to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century”.

ü Take stock every five years - 187 countries have put forward their plans for how to cut and curb their emissions beyond 2020, as far out as 2030. The text promises that parties “shall undertake ... [the] first global stock take in 2023 and every five years”.

ü Loss and damage - The deal includes loss and damage, a mechanism for addressing the financial losses vulnerable countries face from climate impacts such as extreme weather.

ü Money - Finance to help developing countries adapt to climate change and transition to clean energy -- the flow of $100bn (£66bn) a year will continue beyond 2020. By 2025 the draft agreement undertakes to improve on that “from a floor of $100bn”. 

Lack of binding enforcement mechanism

Although the agreement was lauded by many, including French President Francois Hollande and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, criticism has also surfaced.

World Pensions Council (WPC) have observed that the stated objectives of the Paris Agreement are implicitly "predicated upon an assumption – that member states of the United Nations, including high polluters such as China, the US, India, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and Australia, which generate more than half the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, will somehow drive down their carbon pollution voluntarily and assiduously without any binding enforcement mechanism to measure and control CO2 emissions at any level from factory to state, and without any specific penalty gradation or fiscal pressure.

INDIA & PARIS AGREEMENT

India joins Paris Climate Change Agreement, submits instrument of ratification at UN headquarters on Oct 2, 2016.
By putting Gandhi seal on the climate deal, the country will now urge the global community to adopt 'Gandhian way of life' (shun extravagant lifestyles) to reduce their carbon footprints and protect the earth from adverse impact of climate change.


India will articulate its point vigorously during the next climate conference (COP22) at Marrakech in Morocco, beginning November 7.


"India had led from front to ensure the inclusion of climate justice and sustainable lifestyles in the Paris Agreement."Simple everyday changes in lifestyles, when practiced by a large number of people around the globe, collectively will make a huge impact".