Page 32 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Box 3: Synopsis of The Paris Agreement 92

Synopsis of the Paris Agreement

At COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015, Parties to the UNFCCC reached a landmark
agreement to combat climate change and accelerate and intensify the actions and
investments needed for a sustainable, low-carbon future. The Paris Agreement builds upon
the Convention and, for the first time, united all signatory nations in a common cause
to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with
enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate
change by keeping a global temperature rise this century to below 2 degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5
degrees Celsius (Art. 2). Additionally, the agreement aims to increase the ability of countries
to deal with the impacts of climate change, and to make finance flows consistent with a low-
GHG-emission and climate-resilient pathway. To achieve these ambitious goals, appropriate
mobilization and provision of financial resources, a new technology framework and enhanced
capacity-building is to be put in place, thus supporting climate action by developing countries
and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives.
The Agreement also provides for an enhanced transparency framework for action and
support. The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through
‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years
ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties report regularly on their emissions and
their implementation efforts. There will also be a global stocktake every five years to assess
the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the agreement and to inform
further individual actions by the Parties.
The Paris Agreement, adopted through Decision 1/CP.21, addresses crucial areas necessary
to combat climate change. Some of the key aspects of the Agreement are set out below:

• Global peaking and ‘climate neutrality’ (Art. 4) – To achieve this temperature goal,
Parties aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as soon as
possible, recognizing that peaking will take longer for developing-country Parties, in
order to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals
by sinks of GHGs in the second half of the century.
• Mitigation (Art. 4) – The Paris Agreement establishes binding commitments by all
Parties to prepare, communicate and maintain a nationally determined contribution
(NDC) and to pursue domestic measures to achieve them. It also prescribes that Parties
shall communicate their NDCs every five years and provide information necessary for
clarity and transparency. To set a firm foundation for higher ambition, each successive
NDC will represent a progression beyond the previous one and reflect the highest
possible ambition.
• Sinks and reservoirs (Art.5) – The Paris Agreement also encourages Parties to conserve
and enhance, as appropriate, sinks and reservoirs of GHGs as referred to in Article 4,
paragraph 1(d) of the Convention, including forests.

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