Towards a New Climate Agreement – Principles and Practices for Implementation from a Sustainable Development Perspective (original) (raw)
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The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) provided a mandate to negotiate a new climate agreement by 2015, entering into force from 2020. This chapter examines the legal form and principles of a new agreement. It is argued that the ADP allows states to choose between distinctive options, including the adoption of a new protocol, amendment to the UNFCCC, or a combination including decisions by the Conference of the Parties (COP). The legal form of each of the elements of the agreement must also be assessed. Finally, it is necessary to overcome the binary distinction between the commitments of developed and developing states, and establish a more differentiated and dynamic architecture. 3 2. The Durban Platform of Enhanced Action (ADP) 1 Discussions on legal form of a new agreement have weighed on the UNFCCC negotiation process for several years. The 2007 Bali Action Plan 2 set up the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) with the purpose of reaching an 'agreed outcome' on long-term cooperative action on climate change in 2009. The term 'agreed outcome', however, does not provide clarity on the legal form or character of the outcome this process should produce, nor did the Bali decision contain a clear mandate to negotiate the legal character of such outcome. Since the Bali Action Plan, many Parties have repeatedly expressed their view that such outcome needs to be of legally binding character. Several Parties submitted proposals for various legally binding instruments under FCCC Article 17.
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This article introduces and analyses the sustainable development dimensions of the Paris Agreement on climate change. After nearly seventeen years of deadlock, 197 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded a new international agreement at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21) in Paris on 12 December 2015. The Treaty aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty. This article reviews the provisions and principles of the accord, focusing on its potential contributions to sustainable development, and on the opportunities for domestic legal and institutional reform.
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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 ...
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This book presents a comprehensive, authoritative and independent account of the rules, institutions and procedures governing the international climate change regime. Its detailed yet user-friendly description and analysis covers the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and all decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties up to 2003, including the landmark Marrakesh Accords. Mitigation commitments, adaptation, the flexibility mechanisms, reporting and review, compliance, education and public awareness, technology transfer, financial assistance and climate research are just some of the areas that are reviewed. The book also explains how the regime works, including a discussion of its political coalitions, institutional structure, negotiation process, administrative base, and linkages with other international regimes. In short, this book is the only current work that covers all areas of the climate change regime in such depth, yet in such a uniquely accessible and objective way. Fa r h a n a Y a m i n is a Fellow in Environment at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, England, specialising in global environmental issues with particular reference to climate change. Before joining IDS in 2002, she was Director of the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) and led its Climate Change and Energy Programme from 1992 to 2001. She has coordinated several multi-partner research and policy collaborations for a number of governments and international organisations, including leading the team that advised the European Commission on the policy and legal framework for the European Emissions Trading Directive.
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The advent of the Paris Agreement (PA) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has attracted opposing points of view. It was perceived by some as a substantial victory for the global climate, even being hailed or referred as the “world’s greatest diplomatic success.” Others remained skeptical about its effectiveness in tackling the climate problem, deeming the PA as a “triumph of wishes over facts.” Perhaps, the adequate point of view is the one in which “the truth lies somewhere in-between.” In any way, what still resonates is whether the PA will be effective in preventing global climate change.
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This paper examines global climate change and the level of actual and potential responses by international and Regional legal bodies. Important questions about legal achievements on looming global climate crises will be broadly discussed. What is the possibility of these legal bodies and institutions to deal efficiently with these crises? What are the effects of the crises caused by climate change on legal institutions? The capacity and ability of the various existing agreements and laws to manage climate, change. These are international agreements such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto protocol, and the 2012 Doha Post Kyoto Agreement, European Union and African Union treaties and negotiations on climate change. This inquiry will also look at the roles of changing scientific and economic understanding on evolving legal responses. The necessity or otherwise of a binding agreements on nations will also be discussed. Can existing legal and polit...
The Legal Analysis of the Role of Paris Agreement in Development of State Responsibility and Sustainable Practices in International Climate Change Law Analytical Review, 2020
The rapid change in the planetary climate became one of the most relevant challenges for the 21st century.2 Increasing temperature levels are affecting almost all spheres of life and endangering political, economic, social and civil security. In the unstable realities, without proper management, cooperation and implementation of effective solution climate change provokes increased economic struggles, international and local political pressure (threatening peace and security) and puts human rights at a higher risk of violation.3 Urgent actions for climate change adaptation and associated risks mitigation has been declared as the 13th Sustainable Development Goal Agenda for 2030 by the UN General Assembly Resolution.4 At the same time, international law has failed to an effective attribution of responsibility of the states to take action for the sake of adaptation by the Kyoto Protocol. In 2015, during the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement (PA) for keeping the planetary temperature degrees not higher than 2 degrees Celsius.5 The treaty came into force a year later, but has captured attention of researchers due to uneven legal nature and enforceability with regards to the effectiveness of the adoption. This paper describes the elements of concern, issues the presupposition of the PA and argues the aspects of the latest within the system of international climate change law, studies the correlation between the legal mechanisms and efficacy of the PA, compares and challenges the concepts developed within the document in the context of international climate law. Through the analysis of the concepts developed or neglected within the UN Climate Change Framework, the paper discusses the material and procedural state obligations, their practical effects on the situation. Relying on the Republic of Kazakhstan example, paper issues the practical domestic attribution to the state responsibility within the Agreement and compares the existing approaches to the management of climate change in international law. Paper proves the problematic aspects of climate change regulation and for maintaining peace and security, it also offers to provide complex urgent solution put into action, challenging the international law.
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