The Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The agreement is to deal with the greenhouse emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting the year 2020. The negotiations were made by the representatives of 195 countries at the 21st conference of UNFCCC in Paris. The Paris agreement does not force any country to take specific action against climate change, and every country determines its own goal and contribution against global warming.
What does the Paris Agreement Aims
The aims of the agreement are described in the article 2 which sets the following goals.
- Keeping the global average temp below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels and limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C above the pre-industrial levels.
- 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.
- Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.
Paris Agreement Structure
The Structure of the agreement is bottom up in contrast to almost all other climate and environmental agreements and treaties like the Kyoto Protocols also known as Agenda 21 the predecessor of Paris Agreement. Meaning that the agreement is not forcing any country to do anything and does not stigmatize its actions as legal or ilegal. By this scope no congress of any country needs to legislate the agreement for it to take effect.
Sustainable Development Mechanism or SDM
The paragraphs 6.4-6.7 establish the SDM to support sustainable development and the mitigation of greenhouse gases. The SDM is considered a successor to CDM (clean development mechanism). Basic aim of SDM is to contribute to global GHG emissions reductions and support sustainable, renewable and recyclable development. Since the Kyoto Protocol went into force, the Clean Development Mechanism has been criticized for failing to produce either meaningful emissions reductions or sustainable development benefits in most instances. It has also suffered from the low price of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), creating less demand for projects. These criticisms have motivated the recommendations of various stakeholders, who have provided through working groups and reports, new elements they hope to see in SDM that will bolster its success. The specifics of the governance structure, project proposal modalities, and overall design are expected to come during the next conference in Marrakesh.
Finances of the Agreement
The developed countries agreed and took on the commitment to mobilize 100$ billion a year in climate finance by 2020, and also to continue mobilizing finance at the level of 100$ billion a year until 2025. The 100 billion are to aid the developing countries for their actions against climate change. Some specific outcomes of the elevated attention to adaptation financing in Paris include the G7 countries' announcement to provide US $420 million for Climate Risk Insurance, and the launching of a Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Initiative. Early March 2016, the Obama administration gave a $500 million grant to the "Green Climate Fund" as "the first chunk of a $3 billion commitment made at the Paris climate talks. The Green Climate Fund has received over $10 billion in pledges. The pledges come from developed nations like France, the US, and Japan, but also from developing countries such as Mexico, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
In Conclusion
The countries have come to an agreement for the second time in matter of climate change. The agreement is to stabilize the rising sea levels as well as the rising temperatures. Supporting the financially weak and reshaping our technology to a more eco-friendly future.
Source Links:
https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris_en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement
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You can find more articles of mine here: https://steemit.com/@diasdr
You can also find my series in Climate Change here:
https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/climate-change-part-01-general-info
https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/climate-change-part-02-the-time-line
https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/climate-change-part-03-carbon-footprint-and-how-to-save-money
https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/climate-change-part-04-nuclear-power-and-the-thorium-conspiracy
https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/climate-change-part-05-final-part-my-part
What is the likelihood that other countries also step away from the Paris agreement because the USA has walked away? It's it actually true that China didn't sign? Great article, thanks for explaining what the agreement is!
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Actually i dont think anyone is going to step away, and i dont understand of trump thinking of doing so, the agreement does not force you to do anything so the countries can just not do it... China did sign and china is the biggest producer of renewable energy machines in the world.
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See that's what so crazy about it. I swear in his speech he claimed that China didn't sign it (or maybe he meant that they haven't or aren't really planning to reduce their emissions.) I know that Syria didn't because duh, and neither did Nicaragua because they felt like it wasn't hard enough on countries like the US. I feel like Trump is looking for short-term gains while he's in office to say he did something, instead of making choices that are in the best long-term interest of the United States... This is a statement that's true regardless of whether someone believes climate change actually exists. I'm surprised to see so many climate change is a hoax people on this site, especially since we're earlier adopters of technology for the most part, but people here still praise Trump for making coal great again instead of renewable sources of energy... it's almost absurd to me.
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I think that from the 195 countries that took part in the negotiations 148 have signed and the others are going to join the agreement in a different way. Not sure what that means. Well ofc Syria did not sign but if the war were to end tomorrow it would be the best place to start building renewable since it will be build from scratch. Trump's goal might actually be to lower the stock prices of the renewable companies and buy himself in, if he is the business man he says he is. It is all about money, even "saving" the world.
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If there's one thing I hate, it's that government officials are influenced by corporations. And that they make the best decisions for their wallet instead of for their constituents. Time to invest in more cryptocurrencies I guess :D
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Climate change is a delicate theme on which not everybody believes in its existence (the conspirationists, by example) and is not something to give the proper importance in a point that there's a believe that the phenomenon is a myth (by example, some of the USA citizens; a friend of mine told me that they don't believe in it).
Now, it draws my atention that the agreement itself doesn't oblige any country to take actions, the REAL ones besides giving money. What is the sense of an agreement then of you don't take actions in benefit of the world?
BTW, excellent article!
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Well the idea is that we do not force anyone to save the climate in which humanity can survive. If humanity doesn't want to be saved it is fine we can perish, earth wont stop her cycle, and actually even if we are to create more pollution and push earth to the extreme it will still be fine, and life will go on, the whole point is that our civilization is going to die. "I didn't want to save earth in the first place i only wanted to save humanity"
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I think you have a point about it, but also I think that even if our extinction is unavoidable or not, at least we, the people, can do something to relieve the effects of the climate change, if we want to.
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yes we can, i have a few posts about climate change and in some of them there are ways for people to take action, if you want you can check them out :)
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I Will check then out! Thank you!
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Please use the quote function for information taken from sources.
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Thank You
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