International Agreement on Climate Change: Examination of post-Kyoto and Paris protocols
The Evolution of Global Climate Agreements: From Kyoto to Paris
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted in 1992 and entering into force in 1994, serves as the primary international negotiating framework for climate policy. Two significant agreements under this convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, have shaped the global response to climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol set binding emission reduction targets for industrialized countries over two commitment periods (Kyoto I and Kyoto II). However, it differed markedly from the Paris Agreement in both ambition and implementation. The Kyoto Protocol had a more limited scope, with differentiated targets only for developed countries, and it did not include a 1.5°C target.
In contrast, the Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015 and entering into force in November 2016, represents an evolution from the Kyoto Protocol. This Agreement aims to increase the resilience and adaptability of countries to the impacts of the climate crisis through national adaptation plans (NAPs) by least developed countries. The key elements of the Paris Agreement include a more ambitious dual temperature goal of keeping warming well below 2°C, pursuing 1.5°C, nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by all countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a framework for transparency and accountability, and provisions for financial support to developing nations.
The Paris Agreement differs significantly from the Kyoto Protocol in several aspects:
- Climate Protection Ambition: The Paris Agreement sets a more ambitious dual temperature goal, while the Kyoto Protocol only applied to developed countries and did not include a 1.5°C target.
- Scope & Participation: The Paris Agreement has universal participation, with all Parties, developed and developing, setting their own NDCs, whereas the Kyoto Protocol had differentiated targets with only developed countries having commitments.
- Legal Nature & Flexibility: The Paris Agreement is more flexible, based on bottom-up NDCs with periodic stocktakes and updates to increase ambition, while the Kyoto Protocol had legally binding emission targets per country.
- Implementation & Enforcement: The Paris Agreement emphasizes transparency, global stocktakes, implementation support, but no punitive enforcement, focusing on cooperation and evolving commitments, whereas the Kyoto Protocol had compliance mechanisms with some enforcement.
- Mechanisms for Cooperation: The Paris Agreement incorporates Article 6 carbon markets and cooperative approaches, including enhanced standards for inclusivity like “suppressed demand”[5], whereas the Kyoto Protocol had the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation.
The Paris Agreement embodies the current legal standard for climate obligations, requiring states to act diligently to meet the 1.5°C goal, with legal responsibilities for breaches. However, emerging economies such as China, Brazil, and India, and the wealthy Gulf states are not prepared to formally commit to more far-reaching multilateral obligations, in particular to provide financial support to the developing countries most affected by the climate crisis.
Other developments in the global response to climate change include the establishment of a loss and damage fund at COP27 in Egypt to address the impacts of the climate crisis that can no longer be avoided. Current climate policies and actions under existing NDCs would result in global warming of on average of 2.7°C (or within a 2.2°C to 3.4°C range).
Civil society demands for COP majority decisions instead of consensus decisions by all member states, as well as clear rules to prevent conflicts of interest that curb the influence of the fossil fuel industry and the private sector, and transparency and opportunities for civil society actors and particularly affected population groups to participate are important steps in reforming the UNFCCC.
- The shift from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement in environmental science has significantly influenced climate-change policy and legislation, with the Paris Agreement aiming to increase resilience and adaptability to the climate crisis, unlike the more limited Kyoto Protocol.
- The Paris Agreement, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, establishes a more ambitious dual temperature goal of keeping warming well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C, and it includes provisions for financial support to developing nations, such as a loss and damage fund.
- Current general news highlights the importance of incorporating mechanisms for cooperation, such as Article 6 carbon markets and cooperative approaches, into climate-change policy to foster greater collaboration between nations and address the global climate crisis.
