Climate-Change Pledges, Actions and Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiloka de Silva ◽  
Silvana Tenreyro
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Emission Trading ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Copenhagen Accord ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

Abstract We study countries’ compliance with the targets pledged in international climate-change agreements and the impact of those agreements and specific climate laws and policies on greenhouse-gas emissions and economic outcomes. To do so, we compile and codify data on international agreements and measures enacted at the national and sub-national levels. We find that compliance with targets has been mixed. Still, countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol or the Copenhagen Accord experienced significant reductions in emissions when compared to non-signatories. Having quantifiable targets led to further reductions. Effects from the Paris Agreement are not yet evident in the data. Carbon taxes and the introduction of emission-trading schemes led to material reductions in emissions. Other climate laws or policies do not appear to have had, individually, a material effect on emissions. The impact on GDP growth or inflation from most measures was largely insignificant. Overall, much more ambitious targets would be needed to offset the impact of economic and population growth on emissions and contain the expansion of the stock of gases.

scholarly journals Paris Agreement on Climate Change: A Legal And Political Issue

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
Nežla Borić
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
International Climate ◽  
The Impact

This paper presents a critical review of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in the light of legal and political aspects. There is also an analysis of the effects of the Paris Agreement, as an important international agreement in the context of international legal regulation of the consequences of climate change and the obligations of states, and the new socio-political relations they establish. The paper also contains an overview of reactions to the ParisAgreement by analysts and experts in international climate law. The well-known fact that climate change affects human rights and how a country can be held responsible for the international consequences of climate change resulting from activities under that country jurisdiction has been re-examined. It has also been shown that human rights are a common denominator in the approach to climate change and the legal solutions that apply to it. In the end, the paper presents the impact of international law on the responsibility of states to cooperate in devising adequate international action, in relation to the current environmental crisis, caused by climate change.

The Paris Agreement and the Future of the Climate Regime

2019 ◽  
pp. 189-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalisa Savaresi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Global Mean Temperature ◽  
The Future ◽  
International Climate ◽  
The One ◽  
Global Mean ◽  
Important Objective ◽  
Climate Change Governance

This chapter discusses how international law has responded to climate change, focusing on the challenges that have faced implementation of existing climate treaties, and on the suitability of the Paris Agreement to address these. Expectations of this new treaty could scarcely be greater: the Paris Agreement is meant to provide a framework to improve international cooperation on climate change, and to keep the world within the global mean temperature-change goal identified by scientists as safe. Yet, whether and how this important objective will be reached largely depends, on the one hand, on the supporting political will and, on the other, on the redesign of the international architecture for climate governance. This chapter specifically reflects on international law-making and on the approach to climate change governance embedded in the Paris Agreement, drawing inferences from the past, to make predictions on what the future may hold for international climate change law.

Climate Change Law and Policy in India

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepa Badrinarayana
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
National Action Plan ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
National Initiative ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
International Climate ◽  
The Government ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Domestic Law

This chapter discusses India’s role in international climate law and its domestic law on climate change, and demonstrates the limits of its legal position in addressing climate-related threats. Climate change presents a complex challenge for India, which is reflected in its evolving set of climate change laws and policies. Aside from being one of countries most vulnerable to climate change, India is home to some of the world’s poorest people whose lives and property are threatened by climate change. The government has adopted various initiatives to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. The central national initiative on climate change is the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). Action under NAPCC is premised on the principle of sustainable development, which for the purposes of climate change means achieving growth while at the same time minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.

scholarly journals Shifting Traction: Differential Treatment and Substantive and Procedural Regard in the International Climate Change Regime

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Huggins ◽  
Md Saiful Karim
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Common But Differentiated Responsibilities ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Treaty Implementation ◽  
Robust Framework ◽  
International Climate Change

AbstractThe Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signifies a shift in how the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) manifests in the international climate change regime. Unlike the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement does not enshrine differentiated substantive mitigation obligations for developed and developing countries. However, an increasingly proceduralized variant of the CBDR principle, which facilitates regard for the interests of developing countries with respect to treaty implementation yet does not guarantee favourable substantive outcomes for these states, is evident in the emerging regime. The experience of the International Maritime Organization’s climate change regime provides a cautionary tale with respect to procedurally oriented differentiation that is not reinforced by effective processes to ensure that developed states honour their finance and technology transfer commitments. Accordingly, this article posits that strong accountability mechanisms are required to transform opportunities for procedural differentiation in the Paris Agreement into a robust framework for procedural regard for the interests of developing states.

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 Norway–Colombia Agreement to Protect Rainforest and Reduce Global Warming: Success or Failure?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragnhild Sollund ◽  
Angela M Maldonado ◽  
Claudia Brieva Rico
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Oil Extraction ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
The South ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
The North ◽  
International Climate ◽  
And Shifts

The Norwegian government has made an agreement with Juan Manuel Santos, former Colombian president, to give Colombia US$48 million yearly to reduce deforestation. This forms part of a greater effort by Norway to aid countries in the South to halt climate change, through the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative, instituted after the Paris Agreement in 2015. The ways efforts to reduce deforestation have been implemented have been criticised. While Norway, through this investment, appears to be a climate-concerned country, it continues with oil extraction activities. Thus, Norway exhibits double standards and shifts the problem of climate change to the countries in the South. This article examines the successes and failures of the Norwegian rainforest protection efforts in the case of Colombia, assessing the governance of the deforestation policies from the perspective of green Southern criminology and incorporating a critique of the neo-colonialist means of environmental protection established by the North.

scholarly journals The Copenhagen Accord and the future of the international climate change regime

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Sindico
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Copenhagen Accord ◽  
The Future ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Environmental Integrity ◽  
Two Parameters ◽  
Global Carbon ◽  
International Climate Change

This paper analyses the environmental integrity, the nature and the political relevance of the Copenhagen Accord. According to the first two parameters, the Copenhagen Accord is not satisfactory. From a political point of view the conclusion is slightly different, albeit not positive. This paper concludes arguing that after the Copenhagen Conference the future of the international climate change legal regime is likely to be more fragmented, the Accord being one further piece of the global carbon puzzle.

scholarly journals ‘Hooks’ and ‘Anchors’ for relational ecosystem-based marine management

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Jane Macpherson ◽  
Stephen C. Urlich ◽  
Hamish G. Rennie ◽  
Adrienne Paul ◽  
Karen Fisher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Marine Spatial Planning ◽  
Marine Management ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
High Level ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study ◽  
The Impact

There remains uncertainty about the legal and policy tools, processes and institutions needed to support ecosystem-based marine management (EBM). This article relies on an interdisciplinary study of ecosystem-based language and approaches in the laws and policies of New Zealand, Australia and Chile, which uncovered important lessons for implementing EBM around the need to accept regulatory fragmentation, provide effective resourcing, respect and give effect to Indigenous rights, and avoid conflating EBM with conventional approaches to marine spatial planning. We suggest a new way of thinking about EBM as a ‘relational’ process; requiring laws, policies and institutions to support its dynamic process of dialogue, negotiation and adjustment. We argue that relational EBM can be best supported by a combination of detailed rule and institution-making (hooks) and high- level norm-setting (anchors). With its focus on relationships within and between humans and nature, relational EBM may enable new ways to secure cross-government collaboration and community buy-in, as well as having inbuilt adaptability to the dynamics of the marine environment and the impact of climate change at different scales.

The need to include indigenous peoples as ‘expert’ consultants in India's Apex Committee for Implementation of the Paris Agreement

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-209
Author(s):  
Kanika Jamwal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Spiritual Identity ◽  
Dependent Relationship ◽  
Economic Survival ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

This opinion argues for including indigenous peoples as ‘expert’ consultants in India's Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement. Alongside its monitoring and reporting functions, the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement is expected to perform substantive functions, including, developing policies and programmes to make India's domestic climate actions compliant with its international obligations under the Paris Agreement. The argument is based on the understanding that indigenous peoples possess a deeper understanding of their ecosystems and share a special relationship with it. Therefore, their knowledge is key to sustainable ecosystem management. At the same time, a co-dependent relationship with Nature makes them disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Unlike other vulnerable groups, the impact on indigenous peoples ripples beyond their economic survival, and threatens their collective physical and spiritual identity. Accordingly, this opinion suggests direct participation of indigenous peoples in conceptualising and implementing policies and programmes aimed at addressing climate change. To that end, it problematizes the narrow understanding of ‘experts’ reflected in the gazette notification establishing the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement, and draws upon United Nations’ practice(s) enabling participation of indigenous peoples as 'experts' in its specialised agencies and organs. Accordingly, the opinion also suggests a potential means to operationalize their inclusion in the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement.

Climate Diplomacy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Light
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
Climate Stability ◽  
Current State ◽  
Common But Differentiated Responsibilities ◽  
Copenhagen Accord ◽  
Global Agreement

This chapter explores the ethical dimensions of diplomatic efforts to form a global agreement on climate change. It offers a brief historical background on the core multilateral climate negotiation body, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and highlights some contentious moral elements of these negotiations. In particular, it explores the complex ways in which the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” (CBDR) has driven debates on how burdens for mitigation, adaptation, and finance should be distributed between developed and developing countries. It then considers the transformation in these climate negotiations since 2009, including the move toward a bottom-up architecture as part from the Copenhagen Accord to the Paris Agreement. Finally, it assesses the current state of climate diplomacy in relation to broader diplomatic priorities, arguing that climate diplomacy must be elevated alongside other top-tier foreign policy issues today in order to eventually achieve some level of climate stability.

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