Paris Agreement Summary
Article 1
- A glossary for the paper
Article 2
- It is time to respond more appropriately to climate change through sustainability and eradication of poverty.
- Become more adaptable and have each country work within their capabilities, whatever they may be.
- Don’t let temperatures get 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.
Article 3
- Countries should be ambitious and help each other out in following the Agreement.
Article 4
- Reach peak emissions ASAP, then rapidly reduce.
- Each nation sets a goal beyond its current capabilities.
- Developed countries take the lead, support developing.
- Report information on progress with transparency every 5 years.
- Time frames TBD by the conference.
- Responsible for own emissions level.
- Economy-wide changes if achievable.
Article 5
- Preserve large forests – properly incentivize stakeholders to do so, perhaps through monetary conservation
Article 6
- Countries acknowledge that action is voluntary
- Countries will face adaptation costs and any proceeds obtained can be used to offset these costs
- Countries should use a variety of methods to achieve their planned contributions
Article 7
- Countries need to adapt to prevent climate change
- Adaptation costs in the present will greatly reduce adaptation costs later on
- Countries should cooperate to share research and techniques
- Developed countries should assist less developed countries
- The UN will lend support
- Natural resources must be properly managed
- Adaptation efforts will be recognized by the “global stockplace”
Article 8
- All parties recognizing the need for addressing loss and damage to climate
- The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts is the overseeing body for the Paris Agreement
- Detailed out ways they can cooperate such as early warning systems, “comprehensive risk assessment and management”
Article 9
- Developed countries have to provide the resources to assist developing countries in their efforts
- Developed countries should lead the way for “climate finance” for resources, instruments, etc.
- Need to communicate efforts for qualitatively and quantitatively providing aid to developed countries biennially
Article 10
- The agreement highlights the nations sharing a long term vision and coming to a unanimous agreement to use technology in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- They will strengthen cooperative action on technology development and transfer.
- The Technology Mechanism established will thus serve the agreement, working in accordance to the Technology Framework.
- Accelerate, encourage and enable innovation
- Excessive jargon, repetition and ambiguous claims of what to do. No concrete plans in accordance to their “long term vision”
- Important: To support developing nations.
Article 11
- Calls for the need of capacity building in high risk areas ie. developing countries, and those who will be most adversely affected by climate change.
- Says developed countries should enhance support for capacity building in developing countries
- Last line says they will discuss/agree to all the above at another meeting?
Article 12
- Says: Parties shall cooperate in taking measures, as appropriate, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information, recognizing the importance of these steps with respect to enhancing actions under this Agreement.
- Reiteration of previous statements.
Article 13
- Repetition of points that call for a mechanism of transparency and extending support to developing countries for the implementation of this article.
- Important: Says that each party shall regularly provide the following information:
- (a) A national inventory report of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases, prepared using good practice methodologies accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Agreement
- (b) Information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving its nationally determined contribution under Article 4. 8. Each Party should also provide information related to climate change impacts and adaptation under Article 7, as appropriate
Article 14 *mutatis mutandis
- Countries “shall periodically take stock of the implementation of this Agreement to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of this Agreement and its long-term goals”
- Updates every 5 years, starting from 2023
- These updates will help inform future action
Article 15 *mutatis mutandis
- Basically, whatever mechanism to facilitate compliance to this agreement will be followed
- The mechanism is a basically a committee that the Paris Agreement will form, that will check upon progress?
Article 16 *mutatis mutandis
- Article basically says that anyone who isn’t part of the Paris Convention is allowed to view as an observer. Some other specific classifications are given to others…but everyone is free to view ultimately.
Article 17
- “The secretariat established by Article 8 of the Convention shall serve as the secretariat of this Agreement.”
Article 18
- “The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation established by Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention shall serve, respectively, as the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation of this Agreement.”
Article 19
- Subsidiary bodies can be established by the countries in the Paris Agreement if necessary
Article 20
- “This Agreement shall be open for signature and subject to ratification, acceptance or approval by States and regional economic integration organizations that are Parties to the Convention.”
- It shall be open for signature at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 22 April 2016 to 21 April 2017.
Article 21
- “This Agreement shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55 per cent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.”
- Definition of what total greenhouse emissions emissions
Article 22
- The provisions of Article 15 of the Convention on the adoption of amendments to the Convention shall apply mutatis mutandis to this Agreement.
Article 23
- Article 16 will apply mutatis mutandis (Latin phrase meaning “once the necessary changes have been made”)
- In other words, it isn’t done yet and obvious changes still have to be made
- Future changes, additions, or annexes to the agreement will only be lists, forms and any other scientific, technical, procedural or administrative material
Article 24
- The part of Article 14 relating to settlement of disputes is also mutatis mutandis
Article 25
- Each party gets 1 vote
- If the EU or another organization consisting of a collective group of countries votes, it gets as many votes as it has member countries, but only if none of those countries vote independently
Article 26
- The agreement is entrusted to the Secretary-General of the UN (in legal terms, he is the Depositary) since it is a multinational agreement
Article 27
- No reservations may be made to the agreement, meaning that no countries may place caveats on their ratification