Earlier this month, Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. He believes that this agreement is a conspiracy by other countries against the United States to hurt its economy.
With this decision, the US will join Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries which are not a part of this historic climate agreement.
To be sure, the US will not be able to quit the agreement yet. Trump has just started a lengthy procedure to withdraw from the agreement.
This article explains the Paris Climate Agreement in a simplified manner.
Paris Climate Agreement is an international agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
UNFCC is an international environmental treaty which aims to curb global greenhouse gases emissions to protect the environment. The parties to the UNFCC hold conferences every year known as the Conferences of the Parties (COP).
In the year 2015, the conference (COP21) was held in Paris and resulted in the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement. It was signed by 196 countries. Further negotiations for the Paris Agreement took place during COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco. The twenty-third COP will take place in Bonn, Germany and will be held by Fiji.
The main objective of the Paris Climate Agreement is to limit the increase in the global average temperature to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The agreement came into force in November 2016. The Agreement wants to hold the rise in global temperature as it has an adverse impact on the environment resulting in Global warming, a rise in sea level, drought, food and water crisis etc.
The Paris Agreement intends to limit the rise in global temperatures through Nationally Determined Contributions(NDC). Under the NDC, individual countries are required to set their own greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. But, these targets are not legally binding. The countries are supposed to meet and revise their targets periodically. Each target should be more ambitious than the previous target.
India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets to lower the emissions by 33%–35% per unit of GDP by 2030 below 2005 levels. These targets are contingent on finance being made available by the Developed countries.
The United States is the world’s second largest emitter of carbon. It (under the Obama administration) pledged to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 % below 2005 level by 2025.
A Green Climate Fund was also established. It builds on the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ (CBDR). It recognises the fact that the developed countries were responsible for emitting almost all of the greenhouse gases from about 1850 to the 1980s. On the other hand, Developing countries have just embarked upon the path of development.
Therefore, though all countries are responsible, they are not equally responsible for dealing with climate change. Hence, developed countries have to provide financial resources to assist developing and underdeveloped countries in dealing with climate change (droughts, floods). So, a Green Climate Fund has been established.
The agreement requires developed countries to collectively contribute $100 billion towards the climate fund. This amount should be increased over time.
The United States has pledged $ 3 billion by 2020.
To conclude, the target to limit temperature increase by 2 degrees is still very high. But, the Paris Agreement should be seen as a starting point. Unlike Kyoto Protocol (the agreement in force before the Paris Agreement), this Agreement has succeeded in bringing about a global consensus, which has set the foundation for bringing in more ambitious targets in the future.