Paris Agreement and Climate Change
What Is the Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement set a new route in the fight against global climate change by requiring governments to make pledges that would be gradually strengthened. Here’s what the agreement aims to do, and why its success may be crucial to our future.
“A safer and more secure world, one that is more rich and free.” When then-President Barack Obama declared in December 2015 that the United States, together with almost 200 other countries, had committed to the Paris Climate Agreement, an ambitious global action plan to combat climate change, that was the world he envisioned for today’s children.
However, less than two years later, then-president Donald Trump jeopardized the agreement’s survival by announcing his intention to withdraw the US from it—a move that became official on November 4, 2020—as part of a larger campaign to undermine decades of US environmental policy. Thankfully, American voters had their say in November 2020, with Trump being defeated and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being elected to the White House.
The United States officially rejoined the landmark Paris Agreement on February 19, 2021, following President Biden’s day one executive order, repositioning the country to once again be a member of the global climate solution. Meanwhile, city, state, company, and civic leaders across the country and around the world have stepped up efforts to push sustainable energy advancements necessary to meet the agreement’s goals and halt severe climate change.
Here’s an overview of the Paris Agreement, including what it accomplishes, how it works, and why it’s so important to our future.
History of the Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement, hammered out over two weeks in Paris during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) and adopted on December 12, 2015, marked a historic turning point for global climate action, as world leaders came to a consensus on an accord comprised of commitments from 195 countries to combat climate change and adapt to its impending effects.
Because the agreement imposed no new legal duties on the US, President Obama was allowed to legally enter the country into it under international law by executive authority. The United States already has a variety of instruments in place to reduce carbon pollution, thanks to legislation passed by Congress.
After presenting an application for participation, the country formally joined the pact in September 2016. The Paris Agreement could not take effect until at least 55 countries had formally joined, representing at least 55 percent of global emissions. On October 5, 2016, this occurred, and the agreement went into effect 30 days later, on November 4, 2016.6
Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement is a historic international agreement that nearly every country signed in 2015 to address climate change and its harmful consequences. The pact intends to significantly cut global greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep global warming to 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels this century, while also investigating ways to keep it to 1.5 degrees.
All major polluting countries have agreed to reduce their climate pollution and to strengthen their commitments over time as part of the accord. The accord establishes a framework for transparent monitoring, reporting, and ratcheting up of countries’ individual and collective climate targets, as well as a method for wealthier countries to aid developing countries in their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.
How Many Countries Are in the Paris Agreement?
Since 2015, 197 countries—nearly every country on the planet—have ratified the Paris Agreement, with Syria being the most recent signatory. 190 of them have given their formal consent to their support. Iran, Turkey, and Iraq are the biggest emitting countries that have yet to formally sign the accord.
Beyond Paris
While the Paris Agreement intends to reduce global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, several analyses examining the national pledges countries made in Paris show that the cumulative effect of those carbon reductions will not be substantial enough to keep temperatures below that level. Indeed, the countries’ targets are likely to keep future temperature rises to less than 2.9 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, despite temporary reductions in emissions due to changes in production and travel related to the COVID-19 epidemic, current assessments of how countries are performing in relation to their Paris climate targets show that several countries are already falling short of their pledges.
It’s crucial to remember, though, that the Paris Agreement isn’t set in stone. Instead, it’s meant to improve countries’ national efforts over time, so current promises are more like a floor than a ceiling when it comes to climate change ambition. The hard work—reducing emissions even more by 2030 and 2050—remains to be done, and the agreement offers the instruments and pressure to do so.
As the Paris Agreement develops, countries like the United States must make a solid commitment to phase out fossil fuel investment (both domestically and internationally) and invest in natural-based solutions. Often, the communities that contribute the least to global emissions are already paving the way for wealthier nations, committed to rapid emissions reductions, renewable energy expansion, forest protection, and low-carbon economic routes. Nations must help these communities, as well as those who are most affected by climate change.
This involves formally safeguarding Indigenous knowledge and rights, which are crucial in the fight against climate change. Indigenous peoples, who make up 5% of the world’s population, protect 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. Indigenous and frontline communities are forming a global movement and successfully fighting back against extractive, climate-damaging sectors such as fossil-fuel pipelines, logging, dams, and mining, even without stronger acknowledgment in the Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement exposes America’s climate skeptics as global outliers, reflecting the consensus conviction of practically every nation on earth that climate change is humanity’s race to win. Indeed, the widespread mobilization of support for climate action across the country and around the world gives reason to believe that the Paris Agreement will prove to be a watershed moment in the global fight against climate change.
We may all help by looking for ways to reduce our individual, local, and national contributions to global warming, but we now know more than ever that individual effort is insufficient. President Biden will have to erase a lot of damage caused by the Trump administration, and he’ll have to do it quickly. However, the payoff of a safer, cleaner environment for future generations will be well worth the effort.
The next Conference of the Parties is set to take place in Glasgow in November 2021. The goals of COP 26 will be to examine progress made under the Paris Agreement and to encourage countries to improve their initial NDCs so that they are more in line with current climate science. While COP 26 has been postponed due to COVID-19, the postponement allows countries more time to create more ambitious targets and accelerate low-carbon activities in order to achieve a green and resilient recovery from COVID-19.
The 32-page statement lays out a framework for global climate action, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, transparency reporting and reinforcement of climate goals, and assistance to developing countries. Here’s what it’s supposed to accomplish:
reference – NRDC
recentclimate – What Is the Paris Agreement?