The Paris Climate Agreement

The Paris Climate Agreement is the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate change agreement, adopted at the Paris climate conference in 2015. The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.

Among the 197 countries that signed the agreement by 2020 10 countries have failed to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement. These countries are: Turkey, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and Yemen. Turkey is the only G20 member country not to ratify the agreement. In 2017, United States President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Goals of the agreement

Limiting temperature rise: The states have set themselves the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees, and even below 1.5 degrees if possible.

Less greenhouse gases: By the second half of this century, the goal is to achieve a balance between CO2 emissions and CO2 absorption worldwide. Humans should not emit more greenhouse gases such as CO2 than can be absorbed by forests at the same time.

Support poorer countries: The poorest countries on earth are to be supported by the richer countries in climate protection, adaptation to climate change and the elimination of consequential damage.

How should the goals be achieved?

Mandatory reports: In order to keep track of how much CO2 each country emits and what it does to achieve the common climate goals, all countries have to submit regular reports.

Financial aid: The industrialized countries have agreed to provide \$ 100 billion a year to poorer countries from 2020 to 2025. The money is intended to help these countries to eliminate the damage caused by climate change and to use more climate-friendly technologies.

Higher climate targets: From 2020, every country is to present its climate protection plans every 5 years. The new goals must always be more ambitious than the goals before.

Criticism of the Paris Agreement

Environmentalists believe that such an agreement should have been signed much earlier. They also complain that the climate targets continue to be set by the individual countries themselves and that they do not face any penalties if they fail to meet them.

The climate protection plans submitted so far by the states are not yet sufficient to achieve the common goals.