scholarly journals Climate Contributions and the Paris Agreement: Fairness and Equity in a Bottom-Up Architecture

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Chan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Voluntary Contributions ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Fair Distribution

One of the chief aspects of last December's landmark Paris Agreement on climate change was the acceptance of the notion that all states would make a “contribution” to the global effort to address climate change. These voluntary, nationally determined, non-binding pledges are the most visible feature of the reorientation of the international climate regime away from its previous emphasis on “top-down” international coordination, and toward a “bottom-up” architecture that provides greater national flexibility in order to induce broader participation. At the same time, however, the agreement to keep the rise in average global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius indicates that there is a limit to the quantity of carbon that can be emitted to meet this temperature goal, raising the challenge of how to apportion this carbon “budget” among states. Can a fair distribution of the carbon budget be achieved amid voluntary contributions? This paper first discusses the tension between the top-down distribution that a carbon budget approach generally implies, and the bottom-up institutional elements of the new climate architecture. Second, it reviews the alternative ways in which considerations of fairness have been integrated into the design of the Paris Agreement, and the rise of “national circumstances” as the context for fairness. Finally, this paper points to the increased role for normative argumentation in this bottom-up world, where new norms embedded in the Paris Agreement, especially relating to increases in national ambition, take on greater importance in efforts to achieve an equitable response to climate change.

scholarly journals De Copenhagen a Paris: a evolução do BASIC no complexo de Regime de Mudanças Climáticas

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-405
Author(s):  
Mariana Balau Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Political Bargaining ◽  
Regime Complex ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Important Landmark ◽  
International Climate

O fracasso do Protocolo de Kyoto em desenvolver uma estrutura de governança climática eficaz e inclusiva provocou um movimento de multiplicação de agrupamentos no âmbito do Regime Internacional de Mudanças Climáticas (RIMC), como o BASIC. A mudança e gradual fragmentação do regime evidencia o seu caráter não-hierárquico e não-integrado – podendo ser denominado, portanto, um “complexo de regime”. A iminência de reforma na estrutura institucional, com a COP 21 como marco importante, porém, representa a transição de uma estratégia top-down anterior para uma abordagem bottom-up cujo foco reside na contribuição nacional dos países. O principal argumento do presente artigo, a partir de uma análise comparativa longitudinal das COPs, é de que esse movimento indicaria uma fragmentação gradual do BASIC enquanto coalizão de negociação política, ao mesmo tempo em que sugere novos rumos para o regime.       Abstract: The failure of the Kyoto Protocol in developing an effective and inclusive climate governance structure caused the multiplication of groups, such as the BASIC countries, under the International Climate Change Regime (UNFCCC).  Its gradual fragmentation shows the non-hierarchical character of this “regime complex”. The imminent reform of the institutional framework, with COP 21 as an important landmark, however, represents the transition from a previous top-down strategy to a bottom-up approach where the focus lies in national contributions rather than a broader accord. The main argument of this article, based on a longitudinal comparative analysis of the COPs, is that this movement would indicate a gradual fragmentation of BASIC as a political bargaining coalition, while suggesting new directions for the UNFCCC. Key-words: BASIC, Climate Change, Paris Agreement.     Recebido em: março/2019. Aprovado em: agosto/2019.

Filling in for Governments? The Role of the Private Actors in the International Climate Regime

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
State Actor ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Private Actors

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change abandons the Kyoto Protocol’s paradigm of binding emissions targets and relies instead on countries’ voluntary contributions. However, the Paris Agreement encourages not only governments but also sub-national governments, corporations and civil society to contribute to reaching ambitious climate goals. In a transition from the regulated architecture of the Kyoto Protocol to the open system of the Paris Agreement, the Agreement seeks to integrate non-state actors into the treaty-based climate regime. In 2014 the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Peru and France created the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (and launched the Global Climate Action portal). In December 2019, this portal recorded more than twenty thousand climate-commitments of private and public non-state entities, making the non-state venues of international climate meetings decisively more exciting than the formal negotiation space. This level engagement and governments’ response to it raises a flurry of questions in relation to the evolving nature of the climate regime and climate change governance, including the role of private actors as standard setters and the lack of accountability mechanisms for non-state actions. This paper takes these developments as occasion to discuss the changing role of private actors in the climate regime.

scholarly journals The Evolution of the UNFCCC

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 343-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kuyper ◽  
Heike Schroeder ◽  
Björn-Ola Linnér
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Industrial Country ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Voluntary Contributions ◽  
Top Down ◽  
United Nations Framework Convention ◽  
Climate Action

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.

scholarly journals Understanding the 2015 Paris Agreement

2019 ◽  
pp. 205-221
Author(s):  
Lavanya Rajamani
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Step Change ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Multilateral Negotiations ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Legal Character ◽  
International Climate Change

The international climate change regime comprises the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and the 2015 Paris Agreement, and numerous decisions under these instruments. These instruments, in particular the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, represent fundamentally different approaches to the three central issues that the international climate change regime has been struggling with since the inception of multilateral negotiations. These issues are: the architecture of climate instruments; the legal form of climate instruments and the legal character of provisions in them; and differentiation among countries, in particular, between developed and developing countries. This chapter explores each of these central issues in turn, with a focus on how the Paris Agreement resolves these issues, and represents a step change in the international community’s efforts to address climate change.

scholarly journals The Challenges and Opportunities for the Green Climate Fund

2018 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 1875001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan CHEN
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Finance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Public ◽  
Green Climate Fund ◽  
Profound Implication ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
International Climate

The importance of the public finance in tackling climate change has been widely recognized by the global communities. As the operating entity of the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, the $10.3 billion Green Climate Fund (GCF) holds a potential to be the champion in the international climate finance architecture. Within two and a half years, the GCF approved 76 projects worthy of $3.7 billion and has established partnership with 59 accredited entities. Integrating different concerns into its governance and operational modalities, the GCF maintains an inclusive participation and has profound implication for the international climate change cooperation. While with these achievements, the GCF still faces financial and policy challenges going forward. If the current pace of the project approval continues, the GCF will soon exhaust its resource. The existing policy gaps will also jeopardize GCF meeting its climate goals. To ensure a sustainable and bright future, the GCF needs to take advantage of its opportunities and address the challenges in a wise and strategic way. Given the real scarcity of the public resources available, a top-down combined with bottom-up replenishment modality may be worth exploring.

Climate change impact chains in the water sector: observations from projects on the East India coast

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-232
Author(s):  
Sibylle Kabisch ◽  
Ronjon Chakrabarti ◽  
Till Wolf ◽  
Wilhelm Kiewitt ◽  
Ty Gorman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
The Impact

With regional variations, climate change has a significant impact on water quality deterioration and scarcity, which are serious challenges in developing countries and emerging economies. Often, effective projects to improve water management in the light of climate change are difficult to develop because of the complex interrelations between direct and indirect climate impacts and local perceptions of vulnerabilities and needs. Adaptation projects can be developed through a combination of participatory, bottom-up needs assessments and top-down analyses. Climate change impact chains can help to display the causal chain of climate signals and resulting impacts and thereby establish a system map as a basis for stakeholder discussions. This article aims to develop specific climate change impact chains for the water management sector in rural coastal India that combine bottom-up and top-down perspectives. Case studies from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, India, provide a basis for the impact chains developed. Bottom-up data were gathered through a vulnerability and needs assessment in 18 villages complemented with top-down research data. The article is divided into four steps: (1) system of interest; (2) data on climate change signals; (3) climate change impacts based on top-down as well as bottom-up information; (4) specific impact chains complemented by initial climate change adaptation options.

scholarly journals The Paris Agreement: Historic Breakthrough or High Stakes Experiment?

Climate Law ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meinhard Doelle
Keyword(s):  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Top Down ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Flexible Approach ◽  
Climate Negotiations ◽  
Loss And Damage ◽  
Self Differentiation

This article offers an overview of the two key outcomes of the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Paris cop decision, and the Paris Agreement. Collectively, they chart a new course for the un climate regime that started in earnest in Copenhagen in 2009. The Paris Agreement represents a path away from the top-down approach and rigid differentiation among parties reflected in the Kyoto Protocol, toward a bottom-up and flexible approach focused on collective long-term goals and principles. It represents an approach to reaching these long-term goals that is focused on self-differentiation, support, transparency, and review. The article highlights the key elements of the agreement reached in Paris, including its approach to mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, finance, transparency, and compliance.

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