PARIS AGREEMENT : COP 21 DRAFT

The ‘Paris Agreement’, the biggest environment agreement ever, was ‘adopted’ by more than 190 countries

GOAL:-

 The overall goal of the Paris agreement, to keep global temperature rise to a specified quantum

compared to pre-industrial levels, is pegged at either “below 1.5°C”, or, as “well below 2°C”.


 India felt that a transparency and accountability regime should not treat rich and poor nations alike


 India Position is based on logic that developing nation still lacks necessary technology to measure perils of climate change.


For example, India does not have the capacity to measure automotive emissions based on vehicle use accurately, while the U.S. does that every year.

Salient feature of Draft

 Developed country as Role model- Extent to which developing countries would effectively implement their commitments would depend on developed countries living up to their own commitments on  financing, technology transfer and capacity building.

 On peaking of greenhouse gas emissions- The discussion is on making it “as soon as possible” with the caveat that peaking requires deeper cuts of emissions by developed countries and longer periods for developing countries

 Achieving zero GHG emissions growth by 2060-80 is proposed

 Fund mobilisation - Appropriate pricing of greenhouse gas emissions in its many forms, is an important instrument for the reorientation of investment and finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low emission and climate resilient economies and societies.

 Technology framework – By providing overarching guidance to the work of the Technology Mechanism”.It would promote and facilitate enhanced action on technology development and transfer.

 The agreement is much more comprehensive than the Kyoto Protocol which was limited to assigning greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for a group of developed countries

 It asks every country to make “nationally determined” contributions in the fight against climate change.

 It also seeks to establish a mechanism by which the climate actions of all the countries can be

periodically monitored and evaluated to see whether the world was actually able to combat climate

change and whether the actions needed to be scaled up

Win- Win for all

 Developed Nation- The developed countries have ensured that henceforth climate actions would be

taken by every nation and not just them, as was the requirement in the existing climate framework

represented by the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.

 Developing Nation- The developing countries were able to take heart from the fact that the all-
important principle of ‘differentiation’ – that developed nations, being primarily responsible for

greenhouse gas emissions, must take greater action to fight climate change – has been retained, even

though in a diluted form

 The island nations and least developed countries — Most vulnerable to climate change were happy to have forced the rest of the world to acknowledge the need to take a 1.5 degree path instead of the 2 degree it is more comfortable with.

contentious issues

Few of contentious issues which remain unsolved are underneath

 Long term quantified emissions reduction for a 2050 target

 Finance for developing countries

 Updated targets for countries based on stocktaking of carbon dioxide, equitable distribution of the

remaining carbon budget for the world.

 Making explicit the responsibility of developing countries versus developed nations


 Binding targets: Countries have pledged their emission reduction targets. But these are only pledges. EU and the US are strongly opposed to a legally binding road-map

 Periodic Revision of Target- The emission reduction numbers don’t add for now and they need to be revised every 5 years or so. Developed countries don’t accept any criteria that includes historical
accumulated emissions

 Reporting action: After 2020 once the agreement comes in to force countries will have to report back periodically how they are faring against their pledges. This could become the Trojan horse that brings parity between the two without saying as much.

 Developing country targets- most developing countries have made their targets for the Paris agreement

conditional on the nature of the Paris agreement as well as the delivery of finance and technology.

Developed countries want at least a part if not the full target from each developing country to be

enshrined unconditionally

 Technology transfer: Developed countries oppose the proposals from different developing country

groups including India to address issues of intellectual property resources, future technology

development and an institutional arrangement for this under the Paris agreement.

 Adaptation- Developed countries see the core agreement as only about reducing emissions and

accounting for these reductions