Climate Change: Frequently Asked Questions about the 2015 Paris Agreement

Summary

Experts broadly agree that stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere to avoid dangerous GHG-induced climate change could be accomplished only with concerted efforts by all large emitting nations. Toward this purpose, delegations of 195 nations adopted the Paris Agreement (PA) on December 12, 2015. The PA outlines goals and a structure for international cooperation to slow climate change and mitigate its impacts over decades to come.

The PA opened for signature by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on April 22, 2016, at U.N. headquarters in New York City. Heads of state and ministers from more than 175 governments signed the PA, a record for a single day. Signature generally indicates that a nation state intends to be bound by the agreement, and it initiates the process by which a prospective Party follows its domestic procedures to ratify, accept, approve, or accede to the agreement. A government then deposits its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession with the U.N. depositary. The PA will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, representing at least 55% of officially reported GHG emissions, deposit their instruments. As of August 10, 2016, 22 states—representing 1.08% of global GHG emissions—had deposited their instruments of ratification. Based on stated intentions of many nations to deposit their instruments in 2016, including the United States and China, some experts suggest that the PA could enter into force by the end of 2016.

The PA creates a structure for nations to pledge to abate their GHG emissions, set goals to adapt to climate change, and cooperate toward these ends, including financial and other support. The negotiators intended the PA to be legally binding on its Parties, though not all provisions in it are mandatory. Some are recommendations or collective commitments to which it would be difficult to hold an individual Party accountable. Key aspects of the agreement include:

Temperature goal. The PA defines a collective, long-term objective to hold the GHG-induced increase in temperature to well below 2o Celsius (C) and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5o C above the pre-industrial level. A periodic “global stocktake” will assess progress toward the goals.

Single GHG mitigation framework. The PA establishes a process, with a ratchet mechanism in five-year increments, for all countries to set and achieve GHG emission mitigation pledges until the long-term goal is met. For the first time under the UNFCCC, all Parties participate in a common framework with common guidance, though some Parties are allowed flexibility in line with their capacities. This largely supersedes the bifurcated mitigation obligations of developed and developing countries that have held the negotiations in often-adversarial stasis for many years.

Accountability framework. To promote compliance, the PA balances accountability to build and maintain trust (if not certainty) with the potential for public and international pressure (“name-and-shame”). Also, the PA establishes a compliance mechanism that will be expert-based and facilitative rather than punitive. Many Parties and observers will closely monitor the effectiveness of this strategy.

Adaptation. The PA also requires “as appropriate” that Parties prepare and communicate their plans to adapt to climate change. Adaptation communications will be recorded in a public registry.

Collective financial obligation. The PA reiterates the collective obligation in the UNFCCC for developed country Parties to provide financial resources—public and private—to assist developing country Parties with mitigation and adaptation efforts. It urges scaling up of financing. The Parties agreed to set, prior to their 2025 meeting, a new collective quantified goal for mobilizing financial resources of not less than $100 billion annually to assist developing country Parties.

U.S. executive branch officials have stated that the PA is not a treaty requiring Senate advice and consent to ratification. Whether becoming a Party to the PA would require Senate advice and consent depends on the content of the agreement. If the PA were to contain new legal obligations on the United States or require authorizations to implement it, these factors would favor requiring Senate consent to the President’s ratification of it. However, many authorities have opined that the PA does not meet these thresholds for the United States.

Beyond the Senate’s role in giving advice and consent to a treaty, Congress continues to exercise its powers through authorizations and appropriations for related federal actions. Additionally, numerous issues may attract congressional oversight, such as international rules to be developed to carry out the PA, guidance to Parties, use of funds, and assessment of the effectiveness of other Parties’ efforts.