FROM PARIS, WITH LOVE

The Story of Carbon Emission and What we are Upto:

Content:

Introduction:

• World bank data on CO2 emissions, nation wise
• Absolute and Per-capita GHG emission

Outcomes of COP 21

• The Plan
• Comparison with Kyoto Protocol of 1997
• The Paris agreement
• Differentiation
• Mitigation
• Stocktake
• Implementation
• The good news for small island nations
• "Double trigger" entry

INTRODUCTION:

We, as a people of the Earth, are getting increasingly concerned about our footprints on our planet. I mean Carbon Footprint. This is the first reason why I would say we need to smile and be optimistic. Being aware of an issue is the first step in solving it.
However, before we move on to discussing COP21 and its outcome, I would like to clarify, for those who believe otherwise, why the situation of India is not as grim as loosely portrayed.

Here is some data on the contributions of various nations towards global CO2 emissions:

( Source:http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC )

Now why we still need to worry is because the world does not work in isolation and because adding GHGs to the environment will affect us all, equally, eventually (not talking about economics here)
Also, India,as a nation, still bags a place in the top ten highest emitters of GHGs as seen from this data:





Now, this reflects the ABSOLUTE GHG emission. A more scientific approach would be to see the same in terms of per capita:


As we can see from this chart, India's per capita GHG emission is much lower than the global average.








So yes, we need to worry. All the people all over the globe need to, in-fact. The good thing is, that is exactly what we have been doing: worrying and worrying productively.

The Conference of Parties-21, that happened last year in Paris is a reason to smile. As India signs the pact, I would like to present what the conclusions of the COP21 were, from their official document:
(Cut-pasted)

OUTCOMES OF COP21, December 12, 2015

(Source: http://www.c2es.org/docUploads/cop-21-paris-summary-02-2016-final.pdf )

Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reached a landmark agreement on December 12 in Paris, charting a fundamentally new course in the two-decade-old global climate effort. 

the new treaty ends the strict differentiation between developed and developing countries 

common framework that commits all countries to put forward their best efforts 

This includes, for the first time, requirements that all parties report regularly on their emissions and implementation efforts 

The Plan:

• Reaffirm the goal of limiting global temperature increase well below 2 degrees Celsius, while urging efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees 
• Establish binding commitments by all parties
  to make “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs)
  
• Commit all countries to report regularly on their emissions and “progress made in implementing and achieving” their NDCs, and to undergo inter- national review
  
• NDCs every five years
  
• obligations of developed countries under the UNFCCC to support the efforts of developing countries and voluntary contributions by developing countries 
• Extend the current goal of mobilising $100 billion a year in support by 2020 through 2025
  
• Require parties engaging in international emissions trading to avoid “double counting
  
• Call for a new mechanism, similar to the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, enabling emission reductions in one country to be counted toward another country’s NDC
  

As Compared With the Kyoto Protocol:

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol took a more “top- down” but highly differentiated approach, establishing negotiated, binding emissions targets for developed countries, and no new commitments for developing countries. Because the United States did not join, and some countries that did set no targets beyond 2012, the protocol now covers less than 15 percent of global emissions. 

With the 2009 Copenhagen Accord and 2010 Cancún Agreements, parties established a parallel “bottom-up” framework, with countries undertaking national pledges for 2020 that represent political rather than legal commitments. This approach attracted much wider participation, including, for the first time, specific mitigation pledges by developing countries. However, countries’ pledges fell far short of the reductions needed to meet the goal set in Copenhagen and Cancún of keeping average warming below 2 degrees Celsius above pre- industrial levels. 

The negotiations toward a Paris agreement were launched with the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action adopted at COP 17 in 2011. The Durban Platform called for “a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed 

outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties,” to apply from 2020, but provided no further substantive guidance. 

COP 19 in Warsaw called on parties to submit “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs) well before the Paris conference, signalling an important bottom-up feature of the emerging agreement. Heading into Paris, more than 180 countries producing more than 90 percent of global emissions had submitted INDCs, a much broader response than many had anticipated. 

THE PARIS AGREEMENT 

In broad structure, the Paris Agreement reflects a “hybrid” approach blending bottom-up flexibility, to achieve broad participation, with top-down rules, to promote accountability and ambition. 

DIFFERENTIATION 

A crosscutting issue was how to reflect the UNFCCC’s principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.” On the whole, the Paris Agreement represents a fundamental shift away from the categorical binary approach of the Kyoto Protocol toward more nuanced forms of differentiation, reflected differently in different provisions. 

The agreement includes references to developed and developing countries, stating in several places that the former should take the lead. But it notably makes no mention of the Annex I (developed) and non-Annex I (developing) categories contained in the UNFCCC. 

Many provisions establish common commitments while allowing flexibility to accommodate different national capacities and circumstances—either through self-differentiation, as implicit in the concept of nation- ally determined contributions, or through more detailed operational rules still to be developed. 

MITIGATION 

The Paris Agreement articulates two long-term emission goals: first, a peaking of emissions as soon as possible (with a recognition that it will take longer for developing countries); then, a goal of net greenhouse gas neutrality (expressed as “a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks”) in the second half of this century. The latter was an alternative to terms like “decarbonisation” and “climate neutrality” pushed by some parties. 

The core mitigation commitments are common to all parties, but there is some differentiation in the expectations set: developed countries “should” undertake absolute economy-wide reduction targets, while developing countries “are encouraged” to move toward economy- 

wide targets over time. In addition, developing countries are to receive support to implement their commitments. 

NDCs will be recorded in a public registry maintained by the UNFCCC secretariat 

STOCKTAKE  (5 year cycle)

“global stocktake” to assess collective progress toward meeting the agreement’s long-term goals. The first stocktake will take place in 2023. 

The highlight: Transparency, accountability, flexibility

All countries are required to submit emissions inventories and the “information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving” their NDCs. 

Information reported by countries on mitigation and support will undergo “expert technical review,” and each party must participate in “a facilitative, multilateral consideration of progress” 

IMPLEMENTATION/COMPLIANCE 

The agreement establishes a new mechanism to “facilitate implementation” and “promote compliance.” The mechanism—a committee of experts—is to be “facilitative” in nature and operate in a “non-adversarial and non-punitive” manner. It will report annually to the COP. 

The agreement commits developed countries to provide nance for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries (“in continuation of their existing obligations under the Convention,” 

• LOSS AND DAMAGE
  In a victory for small island countries and other countries highly vulnerable to climate impacts, the agreement includes a free-standing provision extending the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.
  The mechanism, established as an interim body at COP 19, is charged with developing approaches to help vulnerable countries cope with unavoidable impacts, including extreme weather events and slow-onset events such as sea-level rise. Potential approaches include early warning systems and risk insurance.
  

The agreement establishes a “double trigger” for entry-into-force: it requires approval by at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

COP 22 is set for November 7-18, 2016, in Marrakech, Morocco. 

India and France led 120 countries in announcing an Inter- national Solar Alliance supporting solar energy deployment in developing countries. More than 20 developed and developing countries launched Mission Innovation, pledging to double public investment in clean energy research and development over five years. 

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and 27 other major investors in 10 countries launched the Breakthrough Energy Coalition to steer more private capital into clean energy deployment. And at a side summit hosted by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, the Compact of Mayors declared that the collective commitments of more than 360 cities will deliver over half of the world’s potential urban emission reductions by 2020.