Climate policies

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Amir Hossain Hossain

 Abbreviation

 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

 Conference of the Parties (COP)
 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
 greenhouse gases (GHGs)
 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP
 World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
 least-developed coun- tries (LDCs)
 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM
 certified emission reduction (CER
 The Kyoto Protocol, 1997

 The publication of the Second IPCC Assessment Report in 1995 showed that
the measures taken up to that point under the UNFCCC to fight global
warming were insufficient. As a consequence, on 11 December 1997, the
UNFCCC parties signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, which only came
into operation on 16 February 2005
 At the time, more than 55 countries had ratified Kyoto, accounting for more
than 55% of global carbon dioxide emission in 1990
 the important omission of the United States of America (USA/US): the biggest
emitter in 1990, has never ratified the Protocol
 190 countries and the European Union (EU) have ratified Kyoto, while Canada
withdrew in December 2011
 Paris Agreement
 The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on climate
change mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016.

 The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on

climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in
Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4
November 2016.
 Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to
1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
 To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim
to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as
possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century
 The agreement was negotiated by representatives of 196
state parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the
UNFCCC in Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and adopted by
consensus on 12 December 2015
 The United States withdrew from the agreement in 2020, but
rejoined in 2021.
 Aims of Paris Agreement
 The aim of the agreement, as described in its Article 2, is to have a stronger response to
the danger of climate change; it seeks to enhance the implementation of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through:
 (a) Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-
industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above
pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts
of climate change;
 (b) Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster
climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does
not threaten food production;
 (c) Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions
and climate-resilient development.
 Countries furthermore aim to reach "global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon
as possible.“
 For USA the specific climate goals are thus politically encouraged, rather than legally
bound
 the agreement is considered an "executive agreement rather than a treaty
Difference between the Paris Agreement and
the Kyoto Protocol
 The Paris Agreement has a 'bottom up' structure in contrast to most
international environmental law treaties, which are 'top down', characterized
by standards and targets set internationally, for states to implement. Unlike
its predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, which sets commitment targets that have
legal force, the Paris Agreement, with its emphasis on consensus building,
allows for voluntary and nationally determined targets.
 Another key difference between the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol
is their scope. While the Kyoto Protocol differentiated between Annex-1 and
non-Annex-1 countries, this division is blurred in the Paris Agreement, as all
parties are required to submit emissions reduction plans. The Paris Agreement
still emphasizes the principle of "Common but Differentiated Responsibility
and Respective Capabilities"—the acknowledgement that different nations
have different capacities and duties to climate action—but it does not provide
a specific division between developed and developing nations