Negotiating the Paris Agreement

2021 ◽  

The 2015 Paris Agreement represents the culmination of years of intense negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Designed to curb climate change, it was negotiated by almost 200 countries who came to the table with different backgrounds, perceptions and interests. As such, the Agreement represents a triumph for multilateralism in a period otherwise characterized by nationalist turns. How did countries reach the historical agreement, and what were the driving forces behind it? This book paints a full picture by providing and analysing multifaceted insider accounts from high-level delegates who represented developed and developing countries, civil society, businesses, the French Presidency, and the UNFCCC Secretariat. In doing so, the book documents not only the negotiation of the Paris Agreement but also the dynamics and factors that shaped it. A better understanding of these dynamics and factors can guide future negotiations and help us solve global challenges.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Asadnabizadeh

AbstractDevelopment of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Negotiations (UNFCCC) is based on the Conference of the Parties meetings. The Paris accord is a political act setting goals to, operationalize the rulebook agreement. The 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poland agreed on a set of guidelines for implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. Katowice was a major step forward for operationalizing the Paris Agreement perspective though the negotiations were incomplete. The Article 6 chapter- market and non-market cooperative approaches- is being sent for completion to the next COP in Santiago. The present research has stressed that in COP25, article 6 would increase high level engagement of countries to finalize guidance with a perspective to prepare a decision by the end of the COP.


2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 740-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara A. Horowitz

The Paris Agreement sets forth a new international legal regime aimed at strengthening the global response to climate change. It was adopted in December 2015 at the annual gathering of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Paris Agreement sits within and implements the Convention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-160
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck ◽  
Moritz von Unger ◽  
Sandra Greiner

The 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (cop-25) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc) became the longest cop on record – but yielded few results. It appears that four years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, enthusiasm has waned and political bargaining and bean-counting have taken over. Countries, for even the slightest chance to keep temperatures ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius, must do much more than they have previously committed to and accelerate the shift towards a zero-carbon economy. However, the conference largely failed to heed the rallying cry of the Chilean presidency. The flagship decisions (grouped under the banner “Chile-Madrid Time for Action”) neither produced new commitments – enhancing ambition or finance for developing countries – nor new rules that would nudge countries closer to the climate action targets needed. The leftover pieces from last year’s negotiations of the “Paris Rulebook” were also not resolved, in particular the unfinished decisions on Article 6 on market- and non-market mechanisms. The procrastination shows that the new architecture of the Paris Agreement, while addressing several of the shortcomings of the Kyoto Protocol, suffers from its own weaknesses. The meager results of Madrid give reason to pause and reflect on the conditions that may hold countries back from fully embracing the Paris Agreement, but also to consider the future and nature of carbon markets and what is making the issue so difficult to resolve.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Tim Cadman ◽  
Klaus Radunsky ◽  
Andrea Simonelli ◽  
Tek Maraseni

This article tracks the intergovernmental negotiations aimed at combatting human-induced greenhouse gas emissions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from COP21 and the creation of the Paris Agreement in 2015 to COP24 in Katowice, Poland in 2018. These conferences are explored in detail, focusing on the Paris Rulebook negotiations around how to implement market- and nonmarket-based approaches to mitigating climate change, as set out in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and the tensions regarding the inclusion of negotiating text safeguarding human rights. A concluding section comments on the collapse of Article 6 discussions and the implications for climate justice and social quality for the Paris Agreement going forward.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 343-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kuyper ◽  
Heike Schroeder ◽  
Björn-Ola Linnér

This article takes stock of the evolution of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through the prism of three recent shifts: the move away from targeting industrial country emissions in a legally binding manner under the Kyoto Protocol to mandating voluntary contributions from all countries under the Paris Agreement; the shift from the top-down Kyoto architecture to the hybrid Paris outcome; and the broadening out from a mitigation focus under Kyoto to a triple goal comprising mitigation, adaptation, and finance under Paris. This review discusses the implications of these processes for the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of the UNFCCC's institutional and operational settings for meeting the convention's objectives. It ends by sketching three potential scenarios facing the UNFCCC as it seeks to coordinate the Paris Agreement and its relationship to the wider landscape of global climate action.


2021 ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Mark Maslin

‘Politics of climate change’ begins by looking at the history of the climate change negotiations, considering key milestones such as the Kyoto Protocol, the Copenhagen Accord, and the Paris Agreement. At the Paris climate meeting in 2015, world leaders agreed that global temperature increase should be kept below 2°C, with an aspirational target of 1.5°C. Despite this agreement, global carbon emissions have continued to rise every year. There are potential flaws in the approach of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We should note the various carbon trading schemes and the UN’s REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) programme, which has been subsequently refined as REDD+. What needs to be achieved politically if climate change is to be mitigated?


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faith Mabera

On 22 May 2019, the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), in association with the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), co-hosted a dialogue titled “Appraising the Dynamics of South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation: Lessons beyond the BAPA+40 Conference”. The event reflected on the international development arena and global development agenda in the context of the United Nations (UN) Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 30 August to 12 September 1978, and the Second High-Level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation (SSC) also held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 20 to 22 March 2019, otherwise known as BAPA+40. The dialogue built on research drawn from the participation of the IGD at BAPA+40 and its engagement in a number of side events in Buenos Aires. The event brought together wide-ranging participants including scholars, academics, diplomats, government representatives, media and civil society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-0
Author(s):  
Monika Adamczak-Retecka

The topic of loss and damage in the context of climate change has gained increasing importance in the UNFCCC climate change talks in recent years. The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage was established after two years of deliberations by the Conference of the Parties (COP) 19 in 2013. It is supposed to be the main vehicle under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to promote the implementation of approaches to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in a comprehensive integrated and coherent manner.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon K. Orr

The 21st meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris faced two particular challenges: the growth of civil society participation in the negotiations, and significant security concerns following the terrorist attacks on the city two weeks prior to the start of the negotiations. This report reflects on the impacts of these two challenges through an overview of civil society participation at the COP, highlighting the implications for the accountability of the negotiations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7627
Author(s):  
Yongrok Choi

When the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) was held in Madrid, Spain from 2 to 13 December, 2019, there was a great expectation for the Paris Agreement to be implemented smoothly in a very transparent, predictable way [...]


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