Who Is Meeting Paris Agreement

While the agreement has been welcomed by many, including French President Francois Hollande and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,[67] criticism has also emerged. James Hansen, a former NASA scientist and climate change expert, expressed anger that most of the agreement is made up of “promises” or goals, not firm commitments. [98] He called the Paris talks a fraud with “nothing, only promises” and believed that only a generalized tax on CO2 emissions, which is not part of the Paris agreement, would force CO2 emissions down fast enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming. [98] The Paris Agreement [3] is an agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that deals with the reduction, adaptation and financing of greenhouse gas emissions and was signed in 2016. The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 196 States Parties at the 21st UNFCCC Conference of parties held at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and agreed on 12 December 2015. [4] [5] Since February 2020, all 196 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement and 189 have left. [1] Of the seven countries that are not parties to the law, Iran and Turkey are the only major emitters. This flexibility has allowed the agreement to pass, but it can be confusing. Targets have been set for different data, ranging from different starting lines to different types of emissions. But the process is also remarkable. Each country has registered a commitment (Nationally Determined Contribution, NDC) to indicate how it intends to meet the terms of the agreement.

Emissions will be 4% higher this year than in 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed. Governments are meeting this week in Madrid and next week to work out some of the final details of the implementation of the Paris Agreement and begin work on new commitments to reduce emissions by 2030. However, the new report shows the increasing difficulty of this task. While mitigation and adjustment require more climate funding, adjustment has generally received less support and has mobilized fewer private sector actions. [46] A 2014 OECD report showed that in 2014, only 16% of the world`s financial resources were devoted to adaptation to climate change. [50] The Paris Agreement called for a balance between climate finance between adaptation and mitigation, highlighting in particular the need to strengthen support for adaptation from the parties most affected by climate change, including least developed countries and small island developing states.