What is Paris Agreement?

It is an agreement within the UNFCCC dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020. The Paris Accord is considered as a turning point for global climate policy.

Aims:

• The central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
• It further aims at pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• The agreement aims to increase the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.
• It also aims at making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.

Points to Remember

• The Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 countries at the 21^st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCC in Paris on 12^th December 2015.
• It came into force on 4^th November 2016
• As of June 2017, 195 countries have signed the agreement.
• 148 countries have ratified it.
• Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs):
• NDCs are contributions that each country should make in order to achieve the worldwide goals.
• The level of NDC that each country sets determines the targets to be achieved by the particular country.
• These contributions should be reported every five years.
• The principle of ‘progression’ prevails which indicates that the next NDC should be more ’ambitious’ than the previous one.
• Nicaragua and Syria are the only countries who have not signed the agreement.
• S.A recently joined the league as Trump announced to pull U.S.A out of the Paris Agreement.
• The Paris Agreement is not legally binding as a whole.
• It does not penalise the countries who fail to fulfil their commitments.
• However, it imposes obligations on countries to implement their plans.
• This includes a review process every five years, designed to pressure them into compliance and increase their efforts to fulfil their commitments.