The Road to 1.5°C: Exploring the Paris Agreement – Part 1

In December 2015, as negotiators from across the globe gathered under the Paris skies, there was a sense of possibility in the air. Despite political differences, historical divisions, and the daunting challenges of climate change, world leaders found common ground. In that room, they made a promise not just to their countries, but to future generations: to keep the Earth within safe climate limits. The end of that meeting culminated in the Paris Agreement which got signed in 2016. The Paris Agreement refers to an international treaty that covers climate mitigation, adaptation, and financial plans which 195 countries pledged to at the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris, France.

Today, greenhouse gas levels are at unprecedented highs, spelling dire consequences for our planet. Methane concentrations are climbing, global temperatures will keep rising, and the economic toll from increasingly extreme weather events will grow. Our oceans are becoming hotter and more acidic, sea levels are steadily rising, and glaciers and ice sheets are melting at an accelerating rate. As a result, several nations are setting carbon-neutral targets in an attempt to address this issue, potentially reducing carbon dioxide and other equivalent gases within their borders. To combat these negative effects, countries around the globe are establishing carbon-neutral targets and working to transform their industrial, energy, and transport systems. As such, it becomes crucial for them to implement domestic climate change legislation and policies to help align and coordinate their climate action strategies.

When the Paris Agreement was formed, nations committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions so as to limit global warming to 2°C or even better, 1.5°C. It was enforced in 2020 and gets revised every five years. Nations are required to submit their plans on how they intend to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the climate change challenges. These plans are called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Therefore, the Paris Agreement contains a framework on financial, technical, and capacity-building support, and a transparent and accountable system for countries to follow. Essentially, all these countries are expected to talk about how they have or are planning to mitigate, adapt, and support climate resilience in their countries. It could be through technologies they have supported, constitutional amendments they have made, or restrictions they have imposed on industries that emit GHGs.

In summary, national legislation is set towards the following efforts:

• Keeping the temperature below 2°C or 1.5°C? above the pre-industrial levels.
• Increasing adaptability to climate change impacts.
• Making finances flow towards greenhouse gases. This could be by investing in carbon projects for example, which avoid, reduce, or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Countries are allowed to use whatever national instruments they choose. The types of national instruments that can be applied are:

• Reporting requirements to increase transparency.
• Securing agreements that legally bind developed countries to support efforts in building clean, climate-resilient futures for developing nations.
• Formulating and adopting national adaptation plans that specify priorities, needs, plans and actions of a country towards climate action.

One tool that the Paris Agreement uses is the Long-Term Emission Development Strategy which is often referred to as LT-LEDS. It is outlined in Article 15 of the Agreement, which established a committee to ensure the framework’s implementation is tailored to the specific national capabilities and circumstances of each country. Under the LT-LEDS, countries have an opportunity to lay out their Vision 2050 for a low-carbon economy, following Article 4 of the agreement. Given the complexity of implementing changes at the national level, crafting this strategy may necessitate collaboration with other organizations. For instance, the World Bank assisted the government of Lao PDR in developing their LT-LEDS and implementation analysis, which included creating a comprehensive plan that addresses stakeholder engagement, policy planning, and the design and analysis required to fulfill their Paris Agreement commitments.

Climate change governance requires legally enforceable obligations to bring international commitments into the domestic legal systems. Pledges become more credible if they are rooted in the law. But even with this increased legislation, climate change still affects a country’s economy and social fabric widely. Therefore many sectoral laws need to be reformed or introduced to address climate change fully. Some of those laws should be aimed at ensuring compliance with the Paris Agreement obligations.

THE GLOBAL CARBON PROJECT

The Global Carbon Project (GCP), was established in 2001, in recognition of the enormous scientific challenge in understanding the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases. The GCP integrates knowledge of greenhouse gases for human activities and the earth's system. Projects include global budgets for the three dominant greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. It focuses on complementary efforts that can be made in urban, regional, cumulative levels to combat negative emissions effects. GCP uses data from different global data networks to reflect the balance between C02 emissions released into the atmosphere vs the carbon removed and stored in land or oceans. Countries can use carbon budgets to benchmark the progress of their emission reduction policies. Emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 to meet the or 1.5°C threshold targets of the Paris Agreement.

However, the problem is that currently, many nations still fall short of the commitments needed to meet this goal. Framework laws are the overarching elements of climate response that a country takes in order to fulfill its commitments under the Paris Agreement. Implementing these frameworks at national levels requires inter-sectional coordination and standing executive bodies to work together. Implementation could be divided into adaptation and mitigation, for ease of work and more clarity. Overarching laws help to coordinate efforts, and mainstream and support effective climate governance.

IMPLEMENTING COUNTRY AMBITIONS THROUGH SPECIFIC LEGISLATION

Once a country has put in the overarching framework legislation to support its Paris Agreement goals, it has several options that it can take from there. Constitutional amendments, national legislation, regulations, standards, and codes may help countries to establish ways that they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They may not be encoded into the law, but they still carry out the full force of the law and they are capable of moving entire sectors like transport and buildings to become more efficient.

In most countries, constitutions serve as the supreme legal authority within their jurisdictions. These constitutions can commit states to specific social, economic, or developmental objectives. Such commitments may be framed as judicially enforceable environmental, social, or economic rights, as well as direct principles that are legally binding on the government. Additionally, they may include other forms of commitment or intent that guide national policies and actions, ensuring that the government remains accountable to its citizens and to broader developmental goals. Constitutional amendments can be strategic vehicles that address and prioritize climate change.

The mitigation opportunities vary from sector to sector. Emission reduction approaches can be applied at national or sectoral levels. This is achievable if policymakers first start by determining which key sectors are priorities in reducing emissions, based on reliable and verified GHG inventories that demonstrate the size of the opportunity in each sector. Priority areas typically include the power, transportation, and building sectors and can expand into industries like aviation, waste, forestry, and agriculture. Each country’s NDCs should be updated to reflect their increased ambitions. Germany has adopted comprehensive national climate plans, while Costa Rica is known for generating nearly all its electricity from renewable sources and working towards decarbonizing its economy.

Several countries have made use of National Climate Change policies to set guidelines for climate change efforts in their countries. Some of these efforts include:

• National bodies responsible for climate change government.
• Adaptation measures and identification of vulnerabilities.
• Setting up a National Climate Fund.
• Finance and provisions for an emission reductions market.
• A National Climate change plan
• Combining climate protection with socio-economic development.
• Promotion of adaptation and mitigation measures.
• Integration of existing climate change policies and plans.
• A national voluntary commitment to emissions reductions.

Chile set up a new framework law on Climate Change to implement the country’s NDC and it includes adaptation, mitigation and financial measures to face challenges presented by climate change. Kenya also enacted The Climate Change Act, 2016 to provide a framework for low-carbon economic development. The framework involves the following plans to make the following efforts:

• Mainstreaming climate change responses into development planning, decision making and implementation.
• Building resilience and enhancing the country’s adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change.
• Formulating programs and plans to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of human and ecological systems to the impacts of climate change.
• Mainstreaming and reinforcing climate change disaster risk reduction in strategies and actions of public and private entities.
• Maintaining intergenerational and gender equity in all aspects of climate change responses.
• Providing incentives for private sector contributions to achieve low carbon resilient development.
• Integrating climate change into the exercise of power and functions at all levels of governance between national government and county governments.

In summary, the article covers how policymakers can use international agreements, national policies, and legislation to work together in addressing climate change. It also highlights the importance of legal frameworks in ensuring accountability and achieving the necessary emission reductions. In part two of this mini-series on the Paris Agreement, we will look at the implementation of the Paris Agreement in the Energy Sector.