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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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