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The Paris Agreement charted a new course in the effort to combat global climate change, requiring countries to make commitments and progressively strengthen them. Here''s what the accord seeks to achieve, and why our future may depend on its success.
Visitors enter the U.S. "We Are Still In" pavilion at the COP 23 United Nations Climate Change Conference on November 11, 2017 in Bonn, Germany.
Lukas Schulze/Getty Images
"A world that is safer and more secure, more prosperous, and more free." In December 2015, that was the world then-president Barack Obama envisioned we would leave today''s children when he announced that the United States, along with nearly 200 other countries, had committed to the Paris Climate Agreement, an ambitious global action plan to fight climate change.
But less than two years later, then-president Donald Trump put that future in jeopardy by announcing his plan to withdraw the United States from the accord—a step that became official on November 4, 2020—as part of a larger effort to dismantle decades of U.S. environmental policy. Fortunately, American voters also got their say in November 2020, ousting Trump and sending Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House.
Following President Biden''s day one executive order, the United States officially rejoined the landmark Paris Agreement on February 19, 2021, positioning the country to once again be part of the global climate solution. Meanwhile, city, state, business, and civic leaders across the country and around the world have been ramping up efforts to drive the clean energy advances needed to meet the goals of the agreement and put the brakes on dangerous climate change.
Here''s a look at what the Paris Agreement does, how it works, and why it''s so critical to our future.
Protesters gather near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France during the 2015 UN Climate Conference.
Clement Martin/Sipa USA via Associated Press
International leaders stand together at the gathering of COP21 in 2015.
Presidencia de la Republica Mexicana via Flickr
Hammered out over two weeks in Paris during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change''s (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) and adopted on December 12, 2015, the Paris Agreement marked a historic turning point for global climate action, as world leaders came to a consensus on an accord comprised of commitments by 195 nations to combat climate change and adapt to its impacts.
President Obama was able to formally enter the United States into the agreement under international law through executive authority, since it imposed no new legal obligations on the country. The United States has a number of tools already on the books, under laws already passed by Congress, to cut carbon pollution. The country formally joined the agreement in September 2016 after submitting its proposal for participation. The Paris Agreement could not take effect until at least 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of global emissions had formally joined. This happened on October 5, 2016, and the agreement went into force 30 days later on November 4, 2016.
Since 2015, 197 countries—nearly every nation on earth, with the last signatory being war-torn Syria—have endorsed the Paris Agreement. Of those, 190 have solidified their support with formal approval. The major emitting countries that have yet to formally join the agreement are Iran, Turkey, and Iraq.
President Donald Trump announces that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Agreement in the White House Rose Garden.
Susan Walsh/Associated Press
Following through on a campaign promise, Trump—a climate denier who has claimed climate change is a "hoax"—announced in June 2017 his intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement and officially pulled the nation out on November 4, 2020—the earliest possible date under the agreement and a day after the presidential election. Thankfully, even a formal withdrawal can be reversed since a future president can rejoin.
On his first day in office, President Biden sent a letter to the United Nations, formally signaling that the United States would rejoin the Paris Agreement. Thirty days later (as is required), on February 19, 2021, the nation was re-entered.
This new era of U.S. climate leadership represents our last, best chance to course-correct in the global race to tackle climate change. In fact, the Biden''s climate plan is the most comprehensive ever undertaken by a U.S. president—and he intends to rally international leaders to cut emissions even more aggressively than under the goals of the Paris Agreement. As Biden and Vice President Harris fight to pull the nation out of the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, they can do so in ways that support climate justice and a clean energy economy.
The 32-page document establishes a framework for global climate action, including the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, the transparent reporting and strengthening of climate goals, and support for developing nations. Here''s what it aims to do:
The Sinclair Oil Refinery in Sinclair, Wyoming
In an effort to "significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change," the accord calls for limiting the global average temperature rise in this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. It also asks countries to work to achieve a leveling off of global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and to become greenhouse gas emissions neutral in the second half of this century. In 2018, the IPCC''s Special Report: Global Warming at 1.5 Degrees Celsius concluded the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsuis could mean substantially more poverty, extreme heat, sea level rise, habitat loss, and drought.
To achieve the Paris Agreement''s original objectives, 186 countries—responsible for more than 90 percent of global emissions—submitted carbon reduction targets, known as "intended nationally determined contributions" (INDCs), prior to the Paris conference. These targets outlined each country''s commitments for curbing emissions (including through the preservation of carbon sinks) through 2025 or 2030, including economy-wide carbon-cutting goals.
INDCs turn into NDCs—nationally determined contributions—once a country formally joins the agreement. There are no specific requirements about how or how much countries should cut emissions, but there have been political expectations about the type and stringency of targets by various countries based on the latest science. As a result, national plans vary greatly in scope and ambition, largely reflecting each country''s capabilities, its level of development, and its contribution to emissions over time. China, for example, committed to leveling off its carbon emissions no later than 2030. India set its sights on cutting emissions intensity by 33 to 35 percent below 2005 levels and generating 40 percent of its electricity from non–fossil fuel sources by 2030.
The United States—the world''s largest historical emitter and the second-biggest current emitter after China—had committed to cutting overall greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. U.S. initiatives to achieve the target include the Clean Power Plan (a state-by-state program to cut carbon pollution from the power sector) and the tightening of automotive fuel economy standards to reduce transportation emissions—both policies the Trump administration fought hard to roll back and which the Biden/Harris administration has committed to strengthening.
The Paris Agreement includes a series of mandatory measures for the monitoring, verification, and public reporting of progress toward a country''s emissions-reduction targets. The enhanced transparency rules apply common frameworks for all countries, with accommodations and support provided for nations that currently lack the capacity to strengthen their systems.
Among other requirements, countries must report their greenhouse gas inventories and progress relative to their targets, allowing outside experts to evaluate their success. Countries are also expected to revisit their pledges and put forward progressively stronger targets every five years, with the goal of further driving down emissions. Nations must participate in a "global stocktake" to measure collective efforts toward meeting the Paris Agreement''s long-term goals as well. Meanwhile, developed countries also have to estimate how much financial assistance they''ll allocate to developing nations to help them reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
These transparency and accountability provisions are similar to those in the frameworks of other international agreements. While the system doesn''t include financial penalties, the requirements are aimed at making the progress of individual nations easy to track and fostering a sense of global peer pressure, discouraging any dragging of feet among countries that may consider doing so.
While developed nations are not legally bound to contribute a specific amount to the mitigation and adaptation efforts of developing countries, they are encouraged to provide financial support and are required to report on the financing they supply or will mobilize.
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