The adoption of the Paris agreement

The adoption of the Paris Agreement by 95 countries at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) in December 2015 was a significant step forward in the global effort to combat the effects of climate change (Joint Standing Committee on Treaties 2016, p.21). The pact builds on the 1997 Kyoto Accord, but it is more sophisticated and advanced in its goal of establishing a global action plan to prevent or mitigate the effects of climate change. The agreement sought greater participation of countries in the process of global realization of its objectives.  The Paris agreement, unlike the Kyoto Agreement, is non-binding and presents each country with a specific target on emission reduction (Morgan and Tirpak 2014, np). The Kyoto Agreement, however, provided a wider global goal on emissions which all the countries were to meet. The Paris agreement has however taken into consideration the unique case of emissions that each country possess and hence the necessary measure. The Paris agreement has also come up with measures to which it will be able to enforce the progress within each of the countries.
In the Paris accord, both developing and developed countries have an equal responsibility and an obligation to handle the problem of global climate change (CCES 2016, n.p). The Kyoto agreement on the other hand provided for a heavier duty on the developed countries to do more in combating climate change, which caused a rift between the developing and developed countries. The Paris agreement therefore recognizes that all countries face equal risk as a result of climate change (Gaast and Wytze 2017, p.87). All countries have a reason to equally put in efforts to implement the Paris climate change agreement.
Unlike the Kyoto Agreement, the Paris agreement has had an improvement in number of the participating countries. According to Jayaraman and Kanitkar (2016, p.1), the major world emitting countries such as China, Mexico and India have submitted their pledges. The number of countries that have shown interest in the Paris agreement account for 80% of the total world emission. This huge improvement from the Kyoto Agreement means that the global problem on emission is being taken more seriously (UNFCC 2016, n.p). The world is therefore in a better position to handle climate change if the implementation of the agreement goes ahead
The Paris agreement seeks to enhance the ability of developing countries combat and deal with the effects of climate change by means of funding under the Nationally Determined Contributions (European Commision 2016, n.p). In order to offer this support, the developed countries will enhance financial assistance to developing countries, enable technology transfer and help the counties to build a capacity that will allow them to handle the dynamism of climate change. The Paris agreement set up commitment targets which have a voluntary adoption basis by countries. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the goals are not legally binding but on a consensus basis and each state can set its own target. According to Obergassel et al., (2016, p.27), the objectives are specifically geared towards reduction of greenhouse effect by reducing the temperature to a global average level of below 2 degrees Celsius. These goals are more politically accomplished by the individual countries unlike but the specific countries are not compelled to do so by any laws.
The Paris agreement has adopted a more elaborate and enhanced transparency framework necessary for implementation. Each country has a legal obligation to have its progress accessed by a technical expert review team (Rogelj et al. 2016, p.634). The examination of the counties is to measure their achievement towards the Nationally Determined Contributions. The framework is to specifically enhance the success of the Paris agreement by way of strengthening the process. The inter-country doubts that have been witnessed in the Kyoto Protocol are also likely to be eliminated under this framework. The Paris agreements provide for a more robust and elaborate climate change strategies aimed at combating the effects of climate change before the end of the century (Savares 2016, p.17). Among the drastic measures taken is to have a cap the surge in global temperatures to just well below 2 degrees Celcius above the pre-determined industrial levels. The agreement also seeks to cap the increase in temperature to just 1.5 degrees Celcius (Bates 2016, p.73). In the process of implementing the above climate change strategies, the agreement also will have a plan to use available scientific means to thereafter swiftly reduce the effects of climate change.
Overall, the drastic measures taken by nations in the Paris agreement are no doubt a major milestone in the achievement of a more stable global climatic condition. As a result of the commitment by nations in the implementation of the Paris agreement, there is so much hope that there could be a shift in the global trends that contribute to global warming. The agreement has brought together global nations in a bid to sacrifice their industrial interest in order to fight climatic change. Although the agreement is still in the implementation process, the level of adoption of the recommendations by nations could mean a drastic reduction in global warming by the end of the 21st century.



Bibliography
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