Things to Know about the Historic Paris Accord

“[The INDC] is a way for top polluter countries to skirt the principle of common but differentiated responsibility”, Bautista said. Here is how some important issues were settled. There was unanimous agreement about this including from Saudi Arabia, China, India, and the USA.

Some developed countries pushed backed against that idea, possibly for fear that developing countries become serious technology competitors, de Coninck explains.

Since 2014, countries have been approaching climate change from a voluntary standpoint, submitting their individual plans to the United Nations.

The Paris Agreement invokes the CBDR principle four times.

Developing nations are among those that could be most impacted. In some places, the requirements of least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) have been kept in mind.

Amid the euphoria that gripped the cavernous halls of Le Bourget conference centre in a northern suburb of Paris, there were warnings that the real work to tackle climate change is only just beginning.

Countries are also committed to “encourage the coordination of support from, inter alia, public and private, bilateral and multilateral sources, such as the Green Climate Fund, and alternative sources in accordance with relevant decisions by the conference of the parties”. It provides for monitoring and verification, as well as much-needed financial and technical assistance for developing nations that are struggling to lift their people out of abject poverty but must avoid a coal-dependent economy.

“Today I’ve heard from New Zealanders who were so proud that we played a part in the historic Paris agreement, but who are now angry to hear the Government is not intending to do anything about it back home”. The Paris Agreement is a permanent document while the decisions of a conference can be modified. A total of 100bn will be invested every year in climate financing for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further financingin the future. The scaling up will happen only after 2025, and the higher amount will be decided later. Governments chose convoluted language, but the only realistic way to achieve the new “long term goal” they agreed to is to phase out fossil fuels by 2050.

Countries will be required to monitor, verify, and report their greenhouse gas emissions using the same global system.

The guts of the agreement hang off the so-called “long-term goal” that commits nearly 200 countries to hold the global average temperature to “well below 2°C” above pre-industrial levels and to “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”.

The agreement has come up with a compromise by mentioning both targets. That is in blatant contradiction with the new 1.5 degree goal, which can only be achieved if we make drastic emission cuts in the next 10 to 15 years.

Nevertheless the deal has backing from 195 countries, nearly 190 of whom have submitted plans for the action they will take against climate change – with Venezuela bringing the total to 188 when it submitted its pledge on Saturday night after the deal was struck. These would henceforth be called only NDCs. “If we have that cycle repeated every five years we’re going to reach the target”.