Paris Climate Accord: Deconstructed

At COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 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 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. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort. It is distinct from Kyoto Protocol as it does not distinguish between developing and developed country.  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, addresses crucial areas necessary to combat climate change. Some of the key aspects of the Agreement are set out below:

• 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 (which shall not be legally binding) 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.

• 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.  Further, The agreement talks about 20/20/20 targets, i.e.

1. Carbon Dioxide emissions reductions by 20%,

2. Work on increasing the renewable energy market share by 20%

3. Target to increase energy efficiency by 20%

During the Convention, India put out a statement that we need to grow rapidly to meet the aspiration of 1.25 Billion population, and out of this 300 Million people are without access to energy. Yet despite the growing demands, India has pledged to reduce emissions intensity per unit GDP by 33-35% of 2005 levels. It is also Aiming to reach 40% of installed capacity from non-fossil fuels and Targeting 175 GW of renewable energy generation by 2022.. India plans to enlarge forest cover to absorb 2.5 Billion tonnes worth of carbon dioxid while reducing dependence on fossil fuels through levies and reduction in subsidies.

India has exhorted on the principles of equity and differentiated responsibilities and observed that  equity means national commitments that must be consistent with the carbon space nations occupy. To this date 189 parties out of the 197 parties have ratified the convention. It  was recently brought to light when the US chose to withdraw effectively from the Agreement in November 2020