ECC 4

History of Climate Change Agreements

The presentation discusses the Paris Agreement, its implementation rules, methods, and processes, as well as its key elements and how it compares to the UNFCCC.

Paris Agreement

  • Adopted in 2015

  • Entered into force in 2016

  • An international, formally binding treaty building on the Copenhagen Accord.

  • It serves as a framework agreement.

  • The Paris Agreement has a work program to develop rules for implementation.

Key Elements of the Paris Agreement

  • Aims for a 1.5/2 degree Celsius goal.

  • Employs a “Bottom-up” & voluntary approach.

  • Relies on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

  • Covers all “elements” but is primarily focused on mitigation.

  • It is a dynamic process for reviewing and increasing the ambition of Parties’ contributions.

  • Includes an Enhanced Transparency Framework.

  • Features a Global Stocktake.

  • Focuses on facilitating compliance.

Paris Agreement vs. UNFCCC

The Paris Agreement considers:

  • Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDRRC).

  • Capacity and national circumstances, which are greater than historic responsibility.

  • Upfront finance as a result of historic responsibilities.

  • All parties participate in mitigation and adaptation, but within vulnerability contexts.

Provisions of the Paris Agreement

The agreement includes various articles covering different aspects:

  • General: Preamble, Article 1 (definitions), Article 2 (the Agreement’s purpose), and Article 3 (NDCs).

  • Main substantive elements and commitments:

    • Article 4 – mitigation

    • Article 5 – greenhouse gas sinks and reservoirs and REDD+

    • Article 6 – cooperative approaches

    • Article 7 – adaptation

    • Article 8 – loss and damage

    • Article 9 – finance

    • Article 10 – technology development and transfer

    • Article 11 – capacity –building

    • Article 12 – climate change awareness and education

  • Reporting, review, and compliance:

    • Article 13 – transparency

    • Article 14 – global stocktake

    • Article 15 – facilitating implementation and compliance

  • Institutional arrangements:

    • Article 16 – CMA

    • Article 17 – secretariat

    • Article 18 – SBI and SBSTA

    • Article 19 – other bodies and institutional arrangements to serve the Agreement

  • Final articles:

    • Article 20 – signature and ratification

    • Article 21 – entry into force

    • Article 22 – amendments

    • Article 23 – annexes

    • Article 24 – dispute settlement

    • Article 25 – voting

    • Article 26 – depository

    • Article 27 – reservations

    • Article 28 – withdrawal

    • Article 29 – languages

General Part of the Agreement

  • Preamble: Addresses sustainable development, food production, quality jobs, human rights, Mother Earth, “climate justice”, public participation, etc.

  • Global goals: Aims to keep global temperatures to “well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C” (Art.2).

  • Guiding principles: Equity and Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDRRC) in light of different national circumstances (Art.2).

  • Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in general (Art.3): The main vehicle for climate action.

Mitigation (Art.4)

  • Parties shall submit increasingly ambitious NDCs every 5 years and “pursue” domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving the objectives of such contributions (Art.4.2).

  • Developed countries should continue taking the lead through economy-wide absolute emission reduction targets (Art.4.4).

  • Support for developing country Parties (Art.4.5) but not a precondition of action.

  • Parties may act jointly (Art.4.16).

  • All Parties are encouraged to formulate long-term low GHG emission development strategies (Art.4.19).

  • Parties shall provide national inventory reports and information to track progress (Art.13.7).

Greenhouse Gas Sinks and Reservoirs and REDD+ (Art.5)

  • Conserve and enhance emission sinks and reservoirs.

  • Reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries through the existing REDD+ framework (REDD: "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation").

Voluntary Cooperation (Art.6)

  • Cooperative approaches to transfer mitigation outcomes.

  • Mechanism to mitigate GHG emissions and support sustainable development (CDM+).

  • Framework for non-market approaches to sustainable development.

Adaption (Art.7)

  • Global goal to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience, and reduce vulnerability (7.1).

  • Adaptation efforts of developing countries to be recognized (Art.7.3).

  • Mitigation reduces adaptation efforts (7.4).

  • Adaptation action to be gender-responsive, participatory, and transparent (Art.7.5).

  • Shall, as appropriate, engage in adaptation planning processes and the implementation of actions (7.9).

  • Should, as appropriate, submit and periodically update an adaptation communication on needs, plans, and actions (7.10) as part of e.g., NAPs, NDCs, or national communications (7.11).

  • Adaptation communications will be housed in a public registry (7.12).

Loss & Damage (Art.8)

  • Further steps to be taken to address loss and damage due to climate impacts (Art.8).

  • Includes the Warsaw International Mechanism on loss and damage.

  • Covers disaster response, risk assessment and management, and insurance.

  • Consists of a task force on displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change.

  • “Agrees that Article 8 does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation” (para.51, Decision 1/CP.21).

  • Rulebook: Reference to L&D in Transparency and Global Stocktake guidelines.

Climate Change Impacts

The presentation included a graphic illustrating the effects of different increases in global temperature relative to pre-industrial levels:

  • 1°C: Falling crop yields in many areas, particularly developing regions.

  • 2°C: Small mountain glaciers disappear - water supplies threatened in several areas. Extensive damage to coral reefs. Rising intensity of storms, forest fires, droughts, flooding, and heat waves.

  • 3°C: Possible rising yields in some high latitude regions. Significant decreases in water availability in many areas, including the Mediterranean and Southern Africa. A rising number of species face extinction.

  • 4°C: Falling yields in many developed regions. Sea level rise threatens major cities.

  • 5°C: Increasing risk of dangerous feedbacks and abrupt, large-scale shifts in the climate system.

Contributions to Global Warming

Areas are proportional to historic carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion, 1900-1999.

  • United States: 30.3%

  • Europe: 27.7%

  • Former Soviet Union: 13.7%

  • China, India, and Developing Asia: 12.2%

  • South and Central America: 3.8%

  • Japan: 3.7%

  • Middle East: 2.6%

  • Africa: 2.5%

  • Canada: 2.3%

  • Australia: 1.1%

Finance (Art.9)

  • Developed countries shall provide financial resources in continuation of existing obligations (Art.9.1) from a wide variety of sources and through a variety of actions (9.3).

  • No burden-sharing agreement or other binding arrangements.

  • Biennially communicate indicative quantitative and qualitative information (9.5) and further information on the support actually provided and mobilized (9.7).

  • Developed countries intend to continue their collective mobilization goal through 2025 (USD 100 billion/year from 2020); CMA will set a new collective quantified goal before 2025 (1/CP.21 para.53).

Technology (Art.10)

  • Enabling innovation via collaboration and facilitating access (para.4).

  • Technology framework to guide the existing mechanism: Technology Executive Committee (policy) & Climate Technology Centre and Network (implementation).

  • CTCN: Advisory board, national designated entities, UNEP/UNIDO, and network of organizations.

  • Technology solutions, capacity building, and advice on policy, legal, and regulatory frameworks to promote transfer.

  • Support for developed country parties (Art.10.5 & 6) and report on support received (Art.13.10).

  • Modalities for the periodic assessment of the effectiveness and adequacy of the support provided to the mechanism (2021-22).

  • Key themes: innovation, implementation, capacity building, etc.

Capacity Building (Art.11)

  • Enhance the capacity of developing countries to take effective action on mitigation, adaptation, technology development, access to finance, education, and reporting.

  • Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB).

  • Initial institutional arrangements to be adopted @ CMA 1 (Art.11.5).

Education & Awareness Raising (Art.12)

  • Enhance climate change education, public awareness, public participation, and public access to information.

Reporting and Compliance

  • Art.13: Enhanced transparency framework for action and support

  • Art.14: Global stocktake

  • Art.15: Mechanism to facilitate implementation and promote compliance

Transparency Framework (Art.13)

  • Build on (para.3) and eventually supersede (1/CP.21 para.98) existing arrangements (para.3).

  • Flexibility (para.1) for those who need it (para.2).

  • Facilitative, non-intrusive, non-punitive (para.3).

  • Clarity on mitigation and adaptation actions (para.5).

  • Transparency of support provided & received (para.6).

  • Inform the Global Stocktake (paras.5&6).

  • GHG inventory and info to track progress on implementing and achieving mitigation NDC (para.7).

  • As appropriate, info on adaptation & impacts (para.8).

  • Developed countries shall, others should, provide info on support (para.9).

  • Developing countries needed & received (para.10).

  • Submission of information at least on biennial bases (1/CP.21 para.90).

  • LDCs and SIDS at their discretion.

  • Technical expert review, plus multilateral consideration of progress (para.11).

  • Support for implementing Art.13 and building capacity (para.14&15).

  • Initiative to strengthen institutional and technical capacity for meeting requirements (decision 1/CP.21 paras.84 & 85).

  • Common modalities, procedures, and guidelines (para.13 and 1/CP.21 paras.91-95) to be developed by APA.

Reporting Requirements

  • All Parties (shall):

    • National greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory (Article 13.7(0))

    • Report (Article 13.7(0))

    • Progress made in implementing and achieving nationally determined contribution (NDC) (Article 13.7(b))

  • All Parties (should, as appropriate):

    • Climate change impacts and adaptation (Article 13.8)

  • Developed country Parties (shall) and other Parties that provided support (should):

    • Financial, technology transfer, and capacity-building support provided to developing country Parties under Articles 9, 10, and 11 (Article 13.9)

  • Developing country Parties (should):

    • Financial, technology transfer, and capacity-building support needed and received under Articles 9, 10, and 11 (Article 13.10)

Technical Expert Review

  • All Parties (shall): Undergo technical expert review of information submitted under Articles 13.7 (Article 13.11)

  • Developed country Parties (shall): Undergo technical expert review of information submitted under Articles 13.9 (Article 13.11)

Multilateral Facilitative Consideration

  • All Parties (shall): Multilateral facilitative consideration of progress with respect to efforts under Article 9, and its respective implementation and achievement of its NDCs (Article 13.11)

Transparency Arrangements under the Paris Agreement Rulebook

The slide outlines the timeline and process for transparency arrangements, including setup of the technical expert review (TER) team, agreement on the date of TER week, preparation of draft TER reports, and comment deadlines for both developed and developing countries.

Reporting and Compliance Framework

The framework includes Transparency, the Global Stocktake, and Facilitating implementation and ambition.

Global Stocktake (Art.14)

  • “The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Agreement shall periodically take stock of the implementation of this Agreement to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of this Agreement and its long-term goals (referred to as the “global stocktake”). It shall do so in a comprehensive and facilitative manner, considering mitigation, adaptation and the means of implementation and support, and in the light of equity and the best available science.”

  • Every 5 years starting from 2023 (Art.14.2).

  • Outcome to inform parties’ NDCs (Art.14.3).

  • Development of further modalities (1/CP21, para.101).

Type of Information:

  • GHG emissions and mitigation

  • NDCs: effect and implementation progress

  • State of adaptation

  • Finance flows

  • Loss and damage

  • Barriers and challenges faced by developing countries

  • Good practices… on mitigation and adaptation

Limitations:

  • Have no individual Party focus

  • Include non-policy prescriptive consideration of collective progress

  • No guaranteed CMA decision (CMA: Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement)

  • Reduced effectiveness given common time frames will only be applied from 2031

Implementation and Compliance (Art.15)

  • Mechanism to facilitate implementation and promote compliance established.

  • Committee of 12 experts (Decision 1/CP.21, para.102).

  • Facilitative, transparent, non-adversarial, and non-punitive.

  • Not “address cases of non-compliance”.

  • Modalities and procedures.

The framework consists of Commitment, Measuring, Reporting, Verification, Facilitating compliance, and Enforcement.