Meet the new universal agreement on climate change
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The Paris Agreement approved on December 12 is the most eagerly awaited historic milestone in the global fight against climate change. It is an instrument of universal scope with which 195 countries are expected to reorient their development towards a more sustainable world, with lower emissions and with the capacity to adapt to a more extreme climate.
COP21 in Paris has produced two important documents:
- The most important, a 12-page document in its English version, called the “Paris Agreement”, which will come into force from 2020, and will be officially ratified by each country between April 2016 and April 2017.
- A “Decision”, a 19-page document that accompanies the agreement, sets out the work that countries must carry out before the agreement enters into force in 2020.
In its preamble, the agreement addresses climate change in a comprehensive manner, crossing cross-cutting issues such as climate justice, human rights, gender equity, or the rights of indigenous peoples, in such a way as to achieve sustainable development and eradicate poverty.
The following are the main issues addressed in the agreement.
The global temperature target:
The agreement defines as a global objective to keep the global temperature increase “well below 2°C” -compared to pre-industrial levels-, and establishes “to pursue efforts to limit this temperature increase to 1.5°C”.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made it clear that a global warming of 2°C will have serious consequences for particularly vulnerable countries. Therefore, the leaders of vulnerable countries made a call at the beginning of the summit,The world's small islands are calling for an ambitious agreement that sets a safer limit of 1.5°C, because for them - in particular the small islands - this temperature increase means the survival of their nations.
Long-term GHG reduction target
As a long-term mitigation goal, countries commit to “peaking global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, bearing in mind that developing countries will take longer to achieve this, and thereafter to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.
In addition, the agreement proposes to “achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and anthropogenic removals by sinks in the second half of the century”. This means, on the one hand, reducing GHG emissions and, on the other hand, offsetting the remaining emissions with mechanisms for capturing gases, for example through forests.
According to a study by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), in order to limit the temperature by 2ºC, we need to achieve zero net CO2 emissions between 2060 and 2075. But if we want to limit it by 1.5ºC, net CO2 emissions must be zero a couple of decades earlier, between 2045 and 2050.
Adaptation:
The agreement establishes for the first time a global goal on adaptation and recognizes that “adaptation is a global challenge that concerns everyone”. It emphasizes the objective of “protecting people, livelihoods and ecosystems”, while specifying that the “urgent and immediate needs” of the most vulnerable countries must be "taken into account".
In addition, it recommends that countries submit periodic reports that include, among others, national plans and adaptation support needs.
The text also recognizes “the importance of international cooperation support for adaptation efforts and of taking into account the needs of developing countries”. The financing section urges countries to support the provision of financial resources on these issues.
Losses and damages:
The issue of loss and damage, i.e. the effects of climate change to which a country can no longer adapt, such as extreme storms or rising sea levels, was finally recognized in the agreement and was separated from the article on adaptation, as requested by the most vulnerable countries.
The agreement mentions the need for loss and damage support, but does not establish specific goals on this point.
It also recognizes the Warsaw International Mechanism as a reference mechanism.
Financing:
The major achievement of the agreement on financing is that it clearly establishes the responsibility of developed countries to provide financial support to developing countries. It specifies that this funding will be earmarked for both mitigation and adaptation, in a balanced manner. It also specifies that the financial contribution of developing countries will only be voluntary.
On the other hand, the text reaffirms that developed countries will provide financial support to developing countries in the amount of 100 billion dollars per year starting in 2020, in accordance with the commitment made at COP16 in Cancun (2010), although it specifies that this is a starting point.
The agreement also specifies that there must be predictability of funding, and that there must be quantifiable information on countries' contributions, by means of declarations every two years. This was a request repeated many times by developing countries.
Global assessment of progress:
The text establishes for the first time a “global stocktaking” mechanism, i.e. a stocktaking of the collective progress in meeting the objectives of the agreement, in particular with respect to temperature objectives, the long-term GHG reduction target and financing.
This assessment will be carried out for the first time in 2023 and then every five years.
National mitigation contributions:
The agreement establishes the obligation for all countries to communicate every 5 years their national contributions in terms of GHG emission reductions. It specifies that the commitments submitted must be progressively better than previous ones, ensuring a constant increase in ambition.
To date, more than 180 countries, representing more than 95% of global emissions, have submitted their national contributions, a milestone that was a major achievement at COP21. Learn more about the contributions submitted here.
Transparency and review:
The text establishes the obligation for all countries to regularly report their GHG emission and sequestration inventories, ensuring the transparency of the process. It also confirms the obligations mentioned in other articles regarding the regular communication of information on the implementation of national contributions, adaptation, the financing provided by developed countries, and the financing needs of developing countries.
The agreement specifies that the information provided will be subject to review by a panel of experts, but will not give rise to punitive actions against the countries.
Pre-2020 action:
Pre-2020 action, i.e. action needed in the period 2015-2020 - before the agreement enters into force - should ensure that countries are on track to meet their emission reduction targets in order to achieve the joint global warming limit target.
During this time, countries must redouble their efforts to identify new opportunities to reduce emissions and collaborate voluntarily so that they are implemented, especially considering that with the INDCs presented we would be increasing the temperature by more than 2.7ºC. In other words, we would not reach the 2ºC goal, let alone the 1.5ºC aspiration.
Source: ConexiónCOP
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