Toward More Effective Implementation of the Paris Agreement: Learning from 30 years of experience (original) (raw)

The Challenges and Opportunities in Operationalising the Paris Agreement

2018

The world today is seen as a global village, rapidly evolving in all spheres including its climate and for this reason, there have been several intellectual gatherings on how best to tackle the adverse changes to the climate. Taking into cognizance that climate change is not something happening in some distant future but a phenomenon occurring in the present; the landmark diplomatic achievement known as the Paris Agreement was initiated. This paper seeks to unravel in holistic terms the Paris Accord by first giving an oversight of the agreement itself then juxtaposing the challenges that continuously stifle its actualization with the opportunities that abound if the goals of this Accord are realized.

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PARIS AGREEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE: INITIATIVES AND CHALLENGES

AnVesak, 2022

This paper critically analyses the role of the Paris Agreement in regulating climate change under the framework of the United Nations. Climate change and environmental security are the major security concerns for the International Community in the contemporary world. The rapid industrialisation, burning of fossil fuels and deforestation in the globalised era led to the massive release of green gas emissions caused for global warming, air pollution, floods, migration and water crisis. Even though the United Nations was established in 1945, it failed to focus on environmental security. However, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations Framework on Conventions of Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto Protocol and the recent Paris Agreement are some of the significant initiatives adopted by the international community to protect the environment. The Paris Agreement came into force on 12 December 2015, aiming at a more profound commitment from all the developed and developing countries. However, the United States' decision to withdraw from the deal in 2017 created a misunderstanding between developing and developed countries.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement: Challenges of the Conference of the Parties

Prolegómenos

The purpose of this article is to analyze, within the scope of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, how the Conference of the Parties provides a new locus for discussion within the International Environmental Law. Increasing scientific evidence about the possibility of global climate change in the 1980s led to growing awareness that human activities have been contributing to substantial increases in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Concerned with it, on December 11, 1990, the 45th session of the un General Assembly adopted a resolution that established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (INC/FCCC). It was the beginning of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and also the beginning of the establishment of the Conferences of the Parties, which is currently in its 25th edition. The Paris Agreement was negotiated at the 21st edition of the Conference of the Parties and is ...

The Paris Agreement: Some Critical Reflections on Process and Substance

University of New South Wales Law Journal , 2016

The contribution analyses the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at the 21st Conference of the Parties (‘COP21’) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (‘UNFCCC’). The focus is on the place of the Paris Agreement in the overall international climate change regime established under the UNFCCC. We first discuss the processes that led to the adoption of the Agreement, with particular attention to discussions about the relationship between the Agreement, the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. We then examine the purpose of the Agreement, including the long- term temperature goal, and review each of the major substantive parts of the treaty. Our analysis concludes with general reflections on the implications of the Agreement for the future of international climate change action under the auspices of the UNFCCC.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Background, Analysis and Implications

Abstract: This paper pre­sents a crit­i­cal analy­sis of the Paris Agree­ment on Cli­mate Change, agreed upon by more than 180 coun­tries at the Twenty-First Con­fer­ence of Par­ties (COP 21) of the United Na­tions Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change (UN­FCCC). The ar­ti­cle traces the de­vel­op­ment of the major is­sues and points of dis­agree­ment in cli­mate ne­go­ti­a­tions from the Copen­hagen sum­mit of 2009 to COP 21 at Paris. The paper ar­gues that the out­comes of COP 21 fell con­spic­u­ously short of the world’s re­quire­ments in terms of cli­mate sci­ence and eq­uity among coun­tries. The paper ar­gues for car­bon bud­gets and, in that con­text, fur­ther ar­gues that the Paris Con­fer­ence has set goals that are at odds with the fea­si­bil­ity of such goals as in­di­cated in the Fifth As­sess­ment Re­port (AR5) of the In­ter­gov­ern­men­tal Panel on Cli­mate Change (IPCC). In gen­eral, the Paris Agree­ment per­pet­u­ates the low lev­els of cli­mate ac­tion thus far un­der­taken by the de­vel­oped na­tions while of­fer­ing lit­tle con­crete as­sis­tance to the less-de­vel­oped na­tions. The over­all re­sult of the agree­ment is likely to be, for the peo­ple of the less-de­vel­oped na­tions, greater dan­ger for those vul­ner­a­ble to the im­pact of cli­mate change and greater dif­fi­culty in guar­an­tee­ing the en­ergy basis of their fu­ture de­vel­op­ment. http://www.ras.org.in/the\_paris\_agreement\_on\_climate\_change

The Paris Climate Change Agreement: text and contexts

Policy Quarterly, 2016

When French foreign minister Laurent Fabius brought down the gavel on the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015, the international community reached a goal that had eluded it for six years: an updated and universal climate change agreement. It owed much to France’s diplomacy over the preceding 12 months, together with efficient, firm and innovative handling of the conference itself. Fundamental to the success of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) was the commitment at all levels from President Hollande down to engage with the broadest range of parties and non-state actors. The fruits of France’s engagement were nowhere more apparent than in the small island states’ comment in the final plenary that this was the first time they felt they had been listened to at a COP.

The Paris Climate Agreement: Towards a climate-friendly future

On the evening of 12 December 2015, Laurent Fabius, the then French Foreign Minister, and President of the 21st session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), closed the climate conference proceedings by stating, “With a small hammer you can achieve great things.” By bringing down his legendary green hammer, Fabius signalled that all of the UNFCCC’s 195 parties had accepted the new climate agreement. This is the analysis of the Paris Agreement from the perspective of two international networks, ACT Alliance and Bread for the World

UNFCCC before and after Paris – what's necessary for an effective climate regime?

Climate Policy, 2015

What can reasonably be expected from the UNFCCC process and the climate conference in Paris 2015? To achieve transformative change, prevailing unsustainable routines embedded in socioeconomic systems have to be translated into new and sustainable ones. This article conceptualises the UNFCCC and the associated policy processes as a catalyst for this translation by applying a structurational regime model. This model provides an analytical distinction of rules (norms and shared meaning) and resources (economic resources as well as authoritative and allocative power) and allows to conceptualise agency on various levels including beyond the nation states. The analysis concludes that the UNFCCC's narrow focus on emissions targets, which essentially is a focus on resources, has proven ineffective. In addition, the static division of industrialized and developing countries in the Convention's annexes and the consensus-based decision-making rules have impeded ambitious climate protection. The article concludes that the UNFCCC is much better equipped to provide rules for climate protection activities and should consciously expand this feature to improve its impact. Policy relevance The international community is negotiating a new global climate agreement, to be adopted at the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in December 2015 in Paris and to be applicable from 2020. This article analyses the successes and limitations the UN-FCCC has had so far in combating climate change and it develops recommendations how to enhance efforts within and beyond the framework of the Convention. From our analysis we derive two main recommendations for an effective and structurationally balanced treaty: First, multi-dimensional mitigation contributions going beyond emission targets could strongly improve countries' ability to tailor their contributions around national political discourses. Second, the UNFCCC regime should be complemented with another treaty outside of the UNFCCC framework. This 'Alliance of the Ambitious' would allow the pioneers of climate protection to move ahead and enjoy the benefits of cooperation. The dynamics generated through such a club approach could be fed back into the UNFCCC, leading to increased ambition by others in future commitment cycles.

Towards a New Climate Agreement – Principles and Practices for Implementation from a Sustainable Development Perspective

At the upcoming 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), which will take place in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015, Parties are set to conclude a new international agreement. This agreement will take the form of “a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force”2, and will be applicable to all UNFCCC Parties. It is currently being negotiated through a process known as the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP). The agreement will establish new mitigation commitments for Parties, as well as commitments on finance, adaptation, loss and damage (which may be included under adaptation or as a separate issue), technology development and transfer, and capacity building. It will take a partially “bottom up” approach, enabling Parties to determine their own mitigation commitments, potentially subject to review processes and other mechanisms to increase ambition. Law and governance systems can foster or frustrate efforts to implement the proposed 2015 climate agreement. In this background paper, the new climate agreement negotiating text is outlined, key principles are discussed, and legal issues raised by the text are identified and analyzed. It is recognized that law and governance will be essential to consider if Parties are to succeed in meeting their commitments. Indeed, a number of countries may decide to reform their laws and institutions in order to implement the new agreement, leading to a pressing need for legal knowledge, expertise and capacity building.