The objective of the agreement is to reduce global warming as described in Article 2 and to “improve” the implementation of the UNFCCC by:[11] Negotiators of the agreement said that the INDCs presented at the Paris Conference were inadequate, noting “with concern that the estimated aggregate greenhouse gas emission levels in 2025 and 2030 resulting from the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, do not fall into the most profitable 2°C scenarios, but rather lead to the most profitable 2°C scenarios. to a projected level of 55 gigatons in 2030” and further acknowledging that “much greater efforts to reduce emissions will be needed to keep the increase in global average temperature below 2°C by reducing emissions to 40 gigatons or 1.5°C”. [25] [Clarification needed] When the agreement was signed on 5. In October 2016, US President Barack Obama said: “Even if we achieve all the goals. we will only reach part of where we need to go. He also said that “this agreement will help delay or avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change. It will help other countries reduce their emissions over time and set bolder targets as technology advances, all within a robust transparency system that allows each country to assess the progress of all other nations. [27] [28] The extent to which each country is on track to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement can be continuously tracked online (via the Climate Action Tracker[95] and the Climate Clock). The Paris Agreement[3] is an agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that addresses mitigation, adaptation to greenhouse gas emissions and financing and was signed in 2016. The wording of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 196 States Parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015. [4] [5] As of February 2020, the 196 members of the UNFCCC had signed the agreement and 189 had acceded to it. [1] Of the seven countries that are not parties to the law, the only major emitters are Iran and Turkey.

The agreement states that it will only enter into force (and thus become fully effective) if 55 countries that account for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions (according to a 2015 list)[65] ratify, accept, approve or accede to the agreement. [66] [67] On April 1, 2016, the United States and China, which together account for nearly 40% of global emissions, issued a joint statement confirming that the two countries would sign the Paris Climate Agreement. [68] [69] 175 Contracting Parties (174 States and the European Union) signed the Agreement on the first day of its opening for signature. [59] [70] On the same day, more than 20 countries published their memorandums of understanding to accede as soon as possible in order to accede in 2016. With its ratification by the European Union, the agreement received enough contracting parties to enter into force on 4 November 2016. Under the Paris Agreement, each country must regularly identify, plan and report on its contribution to the fight against global warming. [6] There is no mechanism that requires a country[7] to set a specific emissions target by a specific date[8], but each target should go beyond the targets set previously. The United States officially withdrew from the agreement the day after the 2020 presidential election,[9] although President-elect Joe Biden said America would join the agreement after his inauguration.

[10] The Paris Agreement is the world`s first comprehensive climate agreement. [15] While the enhanced transparency framework is universal, as is the global stocktake that will take place every 5 years, the framework aims to provide “integrated flexibility” to distinguish between the capacities of developed and developing countries. In this context, the Paris Agreement contains provisions to improve the capacity-building framework. [58] The agreement takes into account the different situations of certain countries and notes in particular that the technical expertise of each country takes into account the specific reporting capacities of that country. [58] The agreement also develops a transparency capacity building initiative to help developing countries put in place the institutions and procedures necessary to comply with the transparency framework. [58] Adaptation issues were more at the heart of the preparation of the Paris Agreement. Collective long-term adaptation objectives are included in the agreement and countries must report on their adaptation measures, making adaptation a parallel element of the mitigation agreement. [46] Adaptation objectives focus on improving adaptive capacity, increasing resilience and limiting vulnerability.

[47] Both the EU and its Member States are individually responsible for ratifying the Paris Agreement. It has been reported that the EU and its 28 Member States deposit their instruments of ratification at the same time to ensure that neither the EU nor its Member States commit to commitments that strictly belong to each other[71], and there have been fears that disagreement over each Member State`s share of the EU-wide reduction target, as well as the British vote to leave the EU may delay the Paris Pact. [72] However, on 4 October 2016, the European Parliament approved the ratification of the Paris Agreement[60] and the EU deposited its instruments of ratification on 5 October 2016. October 2016 with several EU Member States. [72] Article 28 of the Agreement allows the parties to withdraw from the Agreement after sending a notice of withdrawal to the depositary. The notice period may take place no earlier than three years after the entry into force of the Agreement for the country. The revocation shall take effect one year after notification to the depositary. Alternatively, the agreement stipulates that withdrawal from the UNFCCC, under which the Paris Agreement was adopted, would also remove the state from the Paris Agreement. The conditions for exiting the UNFCCC are the same as for the Paris Agreement. The agreement does not contain any provisions in case of non-compliance.

The implementation of the agreement by all member countries will be evaluated every 5 years, with the first evaluation taking place in 2023. The result will serve as a contribution to new Nationally Determined Contributions by Member States. [30] The assessment is not a contribution/achievement of individual countries, but a collective analysis of what has been achieved and what still needs to be done. In addition, countries aim to reach a “global peak in greenhouse gas emissions” as soon as possible. The deal has been described as an incentive and engine for the sale of fossil fuels. [13] [14] Although the agreement was welcomed by many, including French President François Hollande and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,[67] criticism also surfaced. For example, James Hansen, a former NASA scientist and climate change expert, expressed anger that most of the deal is made up of “promises” or goals, not firm commitments. [98] He called the Paris talks a fraud “without deeds, only promises” and believes that a simple flat tax on CO2 emissions, which is not part of the Paris Agreement, would reduce CO2 emissions fast enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming.

[98] The Paris Agreement has a bottom-up structure unlike most international environmental treaties, which are “top-down” and are characterized by internationally defined standards and objectives that states must implement. [32] Unlike its predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, which sets commitment-related targets with the force of law, the Paris Agreement, which emphasizes consensus-building, achieves voluntary and nationally defined targets. [33] Specific climate goals are therefore promoted politically and are not legally linked. Only the processes that govern the preparation of reports and the consideration of these objectives are prescribed by international law. This structure is particularly noteworthy for the United States – since there are no legal mitigation or funding objectives, the agreement is considered an “executive agreement rather than a treaty.” Since the 1992 UNFCCC treaty received Senate approval, this new agreement does not need new congressional legislation to enter into force. [33] The level of NDCs set by each country[8] will set that country`s objectives. However, the “contributions” themselves are not binding under international law because they do not have the specificity, normative character or mandatory language necessary to create binding norms. [20] In addition, there will be no mechanism to force a country[7] to set a target in its NDC on a specific date and no application if a target set in an NDC is not met. [8] [21] There will be only one “Name and Shame” system,[22] or as János Pásztor, UN Under-Secretary-General for Climate Change, told CBS News (USA), a “Name and Encouragement” plan.

[23] Given that the agreement does not foresee any consequences if countries do not comply with their obligations, such a consensus is fragile […].