Case study Paris climate agreement

In 2015, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference a total of 141 out the 197 member parties to the United Nations Climate charter ratified the Agreement (Jacoby, Chen and Flannery 873-890). The primary goals of the Paris Accord are among others to “keep global temperatures under 2 degrees Celsius and help nations deal create effective means to tackle the menace of climate change”. The countries represented in the convention agreed to create measures to control climate change through a program called nationally determined Contributions. For instance, the United States of America pledged to mitigate their greenhouse gases emission and ensure a reduction in emission by 28% from the emission levels of the year 2005 (Ghezloun, Saidane, and Merabet). The Paris agreement is an important agreement in the study of environmental laws and policies.

This agreement is a buildup on what had been agreed in the previous summit in Copenhagen and confirmed in Cancun (Monier et al. The general view of the law on national action based on the Paris agreement provides that parties or member states can prepare National Determined Contributions (NDC) which they plan on to achieve and the best mitigation measures that the parties can formulate. Parties that are in defined blocs such as the European Union can create partnerships between two or more parties and each party has to communicate to the secretariat their emission levels and their commitment to realizing the level is attained. On the law of forests and other lands, the Paris agreement dedicates article five of the agreement on forests.

The aim of the article is to anchor the pre-existing forest provisions, decisions, and frameworks in the Paris agreement. The goal of global adaptation continued its emphasis on the agenda for African countries adaptation. Unlike in previous environmental agreements, developing countries in Africa and in the other continents re to set their long-term adaptation needs while the underdeveloped countries getting specific support on their National Adaptation Plans, preparation, and implementation processes. On the laws concerning finance, technology, and capacity building, the Paris agreement provides that developed countries should take a lead in mobilizing climate finance while all the other parties including the developing and the less developed countries to voluntarily provide such a support. Although it lacks the concrete time-bound commitment, the Paris agreement played a vital role for the concession of the developed countries to support the climate finance agreement.

The COP clarifies that the current mobilization process of approximately $100 billion per year should continue as it is until 2025 when the next agreement shall set a new target (Ghezloun, Saidane and Merabet 10-16). S. president Donald Trump of June 2017 that the U. S. will withdraw from the Paris agreement and additionally the immediate termination of the implementation of the NDCs and all financial contributions to the agreement. The withdrawal is attributed to U. Conclusion The Paris agreement provides countries with a framework with which they can plan and implement their NDCs by taking into account the overall goal of the Paris agreement. From the convention, it is the hope of many that countries will increase their level of transparency and that countries will take a lead in defining an ambitious national climatic change target.