Review of the Paris Agreement: The Heart of the Post-2020 International Legal Regime on Climate Change and its Implications for Sustainable Development Goals and the Energy Sector

Abstract

The Paris Agreement on climate change is the newest, inclusive and most ambitious international agreement to combat the complex problem of climate change, adopted on 12th December 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).With clearer available scientific evidence and better understanding, various stakeholders have now recognized that climate change is a complex problem, which although environmental in nature, has consequences for all spheres of existence on our planet. It either impacts on, or is impacted by, global issues, including poverty, economic development, population growth, sustainable development and natural resource management. It is not surprising then, that solutions come from all disciplines and fields of research and development.At the very heart of the responses to climate change, however, lies the need to reduce emissions. Recognizing that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet, and thus requires the widest possible cooperation by all countries, and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in order to achieve the ultimate objective of the UNFCC, the COP 21 in Paris decided to adopt the Paris Agreement as one of the most remarkable outcomes of the two week long Paris climate negotiations.Destined to become a legally binding agreement, separate from the COP 21 Decision, the Paris Agreement recorded a historic figure, on April 22, 2016 in New York, of 175 signatories on a single opening day. This is by far the largest number of countries ever to sign an international agreement on a single day.Putting the first universal climate change treaty in context, the Paris Agreement is expected to come into force, upon ratification, from the year 2020, replacing the existing Kyoto Protocol under which only developed countries have binding emission reduction targets. The Paris Agreement is all encompassing, with legal obligations on all countries to report and account for their mitigation actions. It offers clear direction with long term goals and signals; a commitment to return regularly to make climate action stronger; a response to the impact of extreme climate events on the most vulnerable group; the transparency needed to ensure action takes place and; finance, capacity building and technology to enable real change. It offers a new type of international cooperation where developed and developing countries are united in a common legal framework, and all are involved and engaged contributors. It reflects the growing recognition that climate action offers tremendous opportunities and benefits, and that climate impacts can be tackled effectively, with the unity of purpose that has brought us to this moment.With respect to the Paris climate negotiations itself, it is clear that it was the failure of the COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009 to conclude the negotiations initiated in Bali that resulted in parties ultimately hitting the reset button in Durban with an eye toward negotiating a new post 2020 climate change regime by 2015 in Paris. Notwithstanding the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol adopted in 2012, COP 19 in 2013 adopted key decisions including decision on further advancing the Durban platform. In 2014, COP 20 held in Lima, concluded with the adoption of the ‘Lima call for climate action’, or document inviting all parties to the UNFCC to communicate their intended national contributions to post-2020 climate action well before the Paris conference in 2015.Obviously, the French presidency of the Paris Climate Negotiations learned from past failures such as the Copenhagen COP in 2009. It resisted throughout the two weeks, the temptation to shift to a negotiation process, sometimes referred to as the ‘friends of the chair’, that would have excluded all but a few negotiating blocs and parties considered to be key to a successful outcome. Instead, the French presidency ensured every party had the opportunity to review each successive version of the text, and to submit its views directly to the presidency. In the end, it was a remarkable outcome of this effort that produced the Paris Agreement, which includes elements of, but also differs from, each previous international climate change agreements. The Paris Agreement therefore, is a further evolution of international climate change law.It is against this contextual background that this paper seeks to achieve the following objectives:I. To examine the rationale behind, and underscore the importance of, the legal character of the Paris Agreement;II. Analyse the structure of legal commitments and approaches to monitoring implementation of the Agreement;III. Analyse the scope of the key elements;IV. Assess the implications of the Agreement for sustainable development and the energy sector;Conclude with viable options for Africa and Nigeria.