Paris Climate Agreement is Signed (December 12, 2015) [1]
On December 12, 2015, the UN Secretary-General issued a press statement [3] characterizing the Paris Agreement [4] (Agreement) as a “monumental triumph.” The Agreement was reached after two weeks of negotiations at the United Nations climate change conference, and contained the pledge of 195 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC [5]) to take joint action in combating climate change. In particular, the Agreement contains provisions dealing with the following: “[M]itigation – reducing emissions fast enough to achieve the temperature goal; a transparency system and global stock-take – accounting for climate action; adaptation – strengthening ability of countries to deal with climate impacts; loss and damage – strengthening ability to recover from climate impacts; and support – including finance, for nations to build clean, resilient futures.” The Agreement’s “main aim is to keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels” and it provides for a review mechanism starting in 2018 to take into account scientific developments every five years. The Secretary-General further commended the role of private businesses, which “came to Paris in unprecedented numbers,” adding that “markets now have the clear signal they need to unleash the full force of human ingenuity and scale up investments that will generate low-emissions, resilient growth.” Finally, the Agreement also increases support to developing countries by “scaled-up finance from developed countries and voluntary contributions from other countries” as well as “[i]nternational cooperation on climate-safe technologies and building capacity in the developing world.”