Paris Climate Change Conference Research Articles

Beliefs and Networks: Mapping the Indian Climate Policy Discourse Surrounding the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015

ABSTRACT The media represents a discursive site with actors trying to influence the discourse on a particular subject. The paper delves into an exploratory analysis of the policy discourse around climate change in India during the 2015 Paris Agreement by tapping into the data from the print media. Employing Discourse Network Analysis (DNA) and drawing theoretical insights from the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), the paper aims to highlight the dominant policy beliefs and the prominent actors in the Indian climate policy sphere. The findings exhibit a firm agreement on the scientific reality of climate change, along with a continued emphasis on the historical responsibility of the developed countries. The transition to renewable energy is widely accepted, but coal phase-out and sustenance of nuclear power is a contentious issue. The study uncovers a consistent belief system underlying the climate change discourse in India and the challenges in the path towards future energy transition.

Carbon emissions influence factors and peak forecast study of China

Global warming is one of the most serious challenges facing mankind in the sustainable development of twenty-first Century. Related studies have shown that 90% of the probability of global warming may be caused by excessive emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), which will pose a serious threat to the survival and development of human beings. To actively respond to the climate change, The Chinese Government promised that the carbon emissions will peak around 2030 in Paris Climate Change Conference. In order to realize the smooth progress of carbon emission reduction, it is necessary to understand China's carbon emission reduction factors, make clear the time of carbon emission and explore the potential of carbon emission reduction, and finally find a way of carbon emission reduction in accordance with China's national conditions.

Analyzing climate and energy policy integration: the case of the Mexican energy transition

ABSTRACT One of the main challenges faced by climate policy makers today is to design and implement policies capable of transferring climate policy goals into sectoral actions towards transformational pathways. Hence, climate policies need to be of cross-cutting character, lead to coherence with sectoral goals and reconcile diverging sectoral interests. Against this background, Mexico has undertaken significant efforts to reform its energy sector, including goals for clean energy and energy efficiency, and the adoption of implementation mechanisms via the Law for Energy Transition of 2015. Furthermore, Mexico has introduced a complex climate governance system, including ambitious mitigation goals. In this paper, we applied concepts of climate policy integration to analyse whether integration between the policy subsystems of energy and climate change occurred in Mexico in terms of political discourse and negotiation, policy goals and instruments, and implementation; as well as the factors at work that lead to climate policy integration. We find that on the level of political discourse and negotiation, an integration process between the energy and climate subsystems occurred, influenced by the availability and market maturity of clean energy, mitigation scenarios and external events, such as the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. However, a combination of decisions on integrated climate-energy policy outputs, and preparing the public administration system for the implementation of integrated policies, is needed to enable appropriate institutional mandates, budgets and instruments and avoid institutional fragmentation. Omitting to take these decisions was identified as a major shortcoming in the political-administrative system, preventing higher levels of climate policy integration. Key policy insights The Mexican Energy Transition Law shows that policy windows can be used by policy makers to attain integrated energy-climate policy outputs and to advance national mitigation and energy sector goals. In order to make full use of integrated policy decisions, the administrative system has to follow suit by also introducing mandates, budgets and policy instruments of an integrative character. Climate policy integration in practice implies identifying and using the full potential of policy windows in order to ensure the raising of ambition under the Paris Agreement as well as achievement of sectoral policy objectives.

Regional development and carbon emissions in China

China announced at the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015 that the country would reach peak carbon emissions around 2030. Since then, widespread attention has been devoted to determining when and how this goal will be achieved. This study aims to explore the role of China's changing regional development patterns in the achievement of this goal. This study uses the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to estimate seven socioeconomic drivers of the changes in CO2 emissions in China since 2000. The results show that China's carbon emissions have plateaued since 2012 mainly because of energy efficiency gains and structural upgrades (i.e., industrial structure, energy mix and regional structure). Regional structure, measured by provincial economic growth shares, has drastically reduced CO2 emissions since 2012. The effects of these drivers on emissions changes varied across regions due to their different regional development patterns. Industrial structure and energy mix resulted in emissions growth in some regions, but these two drivers led to emissions reduction at the national level. For example, industrial structure reduced China's CO2 emissions by 1.0% from 2013 to 2016; however, it increased CO2 emissions in the Northeast and Northwest regions by 1.7% and 0.9%, respectively. Studying China's plateauing CO2 emissions in the new normal stage at the regional level yields a strong recommendation that China's regions cooperate to improve development patterns.

Deploying Electric Vehicles Into Shared-Use Services: Amping up Public Charging Demand to Justify an Investment in Infrastructure

This past October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report, "Global Warming of 1.5?C: A Summary for Policymakers." A total of 91 authors and review editors from 40 countries worked on the report, basing their projections and conclusions on peer reviews and the more than 6,000 studies they examined. Lobbying by low-lying island states and others who were concerned that the assumptions and agreements from the Paris Climate Change Conference and Treaty might not be aggressive enough prompted the report's creation.

A Study of the Stability of China’s Carbon Dioxide Emissions

ABSTRACT China needs to reach a peak of CO2 emissions around 2030 as the goal of “national autonomous contribution” submitted by its government at the Paris Climate Change Conference. Utilizing the quantile method to calculate the CO2 convergence in the eastern, central, and western regions in China between 1995 and 2014, we find that provinces in different regions in China have certain effects on CO2 emissions reduction and there exist a trend of CO2 convergence in the eastern and central regions. The convergence of provinces with a mature industrial structure is relatively stable, especially in areas where the proportion of public-owned economy is large, e.g., Jiangsu, Hunan, etc. The task of CO2 reduction in resource and energy province (i.e., Shanxi Province) is still challenging.

Assessment of Green Practices in Residential Buildings: A Survey-Based Empirical Study of Residents in Kazakhstan

In the lead-up to the Paris climate change conference, the majority of the UN Member States submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions on carbon emissions reduction to be met by 2030. Kazakhstan is no exception. The government made pledges and, therefore, has to adapt its national policies and regulations to meet the set ambitious goals. In this regard, the role of residential building sector is of the utmost importance due to its significant share in the country’s energy consumption and carbon emissions profile. Thus, this study presents the types of residential buildings available and assesses how far they are from meeting the green building (GB) indicators set in various certification schemes and standards. This would help in suggesting practical steps to improve the sustainability levels of the residential building stock of Kazakhstan. This study collected a robust set of data on existing residential buildings in Astana, chosen as a case study location, classified them and, based on a developed checklist, evaluated their performance compared to GB standards. The study has found that old buildings tend to have a rather poor level of sustainability, whereas the sustainability of new buildings depends on the class of the building—steadily increasing from economy to premium class in all categories of the checklist. A detailed analysis of the results has led to the development of recommendations on how each type of building should be improved to meet the GB standards.

Resources of a New Carbon Economy

AbstractIn order to achieve the two‐degree target agreed by the Paris Climate Change Conference, man‐made carbon input into the atmosphere has to be limited to a quantity not greater than the amount of carbon that can be absorbed by sinks. In addition to the energy system, this also affects important industries such as the steel, cement and chemical industry, whose production structures are essentially based on the processing of fossil carbon compounds. If a net zero emission target really is to be achieved, a system change that includes the fundamentally different management of carbon‐containing raw materials is also essential for these industries. This requires a considerable amount of renewable energy.

Stagnating CO2 emissions with in-depth socioeconomic transition in Beijing

Curbing the growth of global CO2 emissions and limiting global average temperature rise to well below 2 °C are important targets for the international society after the Paris Climate Change Conference. Given the continuously increasing emission trends in most of the developing world, peaking emissions as soon as possible during the developing and transition process is a key challenge in realizing the target globally. In this study, we established a comprehensive analysis framework for peaking stage analysis, based on three scopes accounting, and estimating the impact of in-depth socioeconomic transitions on peaking stages. We further applied it to Beijing, which reversed its growth trend in CO2 emissions and acted as a pioneer in fulfilling the peaking target of emissions during in-depth socioeconomic transition period, in recent years. We found that the turning point for production-based CO2 emissions in Beijing appeared around 2007, which stopped growing and has since been fluctuating around 100 Mt. During the in-depth industrialization process, accelerating the elimination of energy and carbon intensive industries, such as resource-related heavy manufacturing, promoting the transition from industries to services, and upgrading the internal structure of industries, were key factors determining the CO2 emissions peak in Beijing. Meanwhile, the optimization of the internal production structure of consumer and producer services also led to a declining trend of services with the in-depth industrial transition. During the in-depth urbanization process, the reduced CO2 intensity and optimized production structure of shelter and household equipment, and upgraded services dominated consumption structure were the main reasons for urban household CO2 mitigation. Clarifying the mechanism of the CO2 emissions peak during the in-depth socioeconomic transition period in Beijing will help us understand the challenges of peak better and provide valuable references for other countries and regions in the developing world that are facing peaking emissions challenges in the processes of their development.

Household CO<sub>2</sub> emissions: An assessment based a large sample survey in China

Household consumption and energy usage have increased with the improved per capita income and advancing living standard. CO2 emissions are also increasing from the household sector including direct CO2 emissions from energy usage and indirect CO2 emissions from household consumption. For example, household appliances, electronic products and private cars are increasingly widespread, which brings higher CO2 emissions from households. At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, China, as the largest developing country and largest total emitting country in the world, promised to reduce its carbon emission intensity (CO2 emissions per GDP) in the year 2020 by 40%–45% compared to 2005. China also promised to achieve its carbon emissions peak value around 2030 at Paris Climate Change Conference. The analysis of determinants of household CO2 emissions is a significant way to give effective low-carbon measures for governments and energy policy-makers. Based on survey data of household CO2 emissions (HCEs) in Mainland China, we calculated HCEs at the per household and per capita levels, and evaluated the carbon emissions structure level both in urban and rural areas in eight research regions by using IPCC Reference Approach and Input-Output Analysis and Consumer Lifestyle Approach. Our conclusions are as follows: (1) China’s HCEs are very low both from per household and per capita perspectives, at 8.05 t CO2/household and 2.47 t CO2/person, respectively. (2) There are great differences on HCEs between urban and rural areas in China. HCEs per household in urban and rural areas are 9.54 and 6.43 t CO2, respectively. HCEs per household in urban areas are 1.48 times as much as in rural areas. HCEs per capita in urban and rural areas are 3.25 and 1.78 t CO2, respectively. HCEs per capita in urban areas are 1.82 times as much as in rural areas. (3) There are great regional differences in HCEs. Southwest China has the lowest HCEs both per household and per capita, which are 6.89 t CO2/household and 2.06 t CO2/person, respectively. Shanxi-Shaanxi- Inner Mongolia Area has the greatest per household HCEs, which are 9.52 t CO2/household. Northeast China has the greatest per capita HCEs, which are 3.15 t CO2/person. (4) There are great differences in HCEs between direct and indirect forms of emissions. Comparing HCEs per household from direct energy usage and indirect household consumption, direct HCEs accounted for 23.51%, 15.80% and 35.88% in the all of China, urban areas, and rural areas, respectively. Indirect household consumption contributed to the balances of HCEs. (5) There are great differences in HCEs between different carbon emissions sources. Comparing HCEs from the point of carbon emissions, health care, heating, coal, food and electricity were the main contributors to HCEs both in the whole region, and both urban and rural areas. The results revealed the current situation and the development trend of HCEs both in urban areas and rural areas in China, as well as an analysis of both regional and urban/rural differences in HCEs. Our results show that different consuming behaviors played different roles in rising HCEs. Low-carbon policies, including enhancing the residents’ awareness on energy saving and carbon emission reduction, encouraging multi-generation members to live together and mastering green and low-carbon construction systems, were provided, which also gave data support and scientific evidence for achieving 40%–45% reduction targets in 2020 and the peak value targets around 2030.

Collective action in an asymmetric world

A central authority possessing tax and expenditure responsibilities can readily provide an efficient level of a public good. Absent a central authority, voluntary arrangements must replace coercive ones, and significant under-provision must be expected. International public goods are particularly challenging due to the substantial asymmetries among nations. Small-interest nations have strong incentives to ride cheaply. Our empirical results reveal cheap riding intentions in providing for climate change mitigation, a critical international public good. The evidence is provided by individual nations' Intended Nationally Determined Contributions voluntarily pledged for the Paris Climate Change Conference. We find that larger nations made much larger pledges in proportion to both their Gross National Incomes and their historical emissions. Implications for the Nordhaus Climate Club and carbon-tax proposals are discussed. To achieve Pareto optimality despite disparate cheap-riding incentives, we propose the Cheap-Riding Efficient equilibrium. That solution takes the Nash equilibrium as a base point, and then applies the principles of either the Nash Bargaining solution or the Lindahl equilibrium to proceed to the Pareto frontier.

Tremendous Changes in India after Paris Climate Change Conference

India is the first Nation in the Earth to have made provisions for the conservation, preservation andprotection of environment in its constitution .On 5th June 1972 environment was first discussed as an itemof U.N Conference on human environment development in Stockholm and thereafter our country tooklegislative steps for environmental protection. The Paris Climate Change Conference was successfullyconcluded with the Paris Agreement, which is a Turning Point for the world in Inclusively Oppose climatechange. By Engage in IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on climate change) assessments, adopting newmethods and conducting national climate change assessments, India has been increasing its understandingof the issue. Moreover, this participation indicates India‘s dedication to including climate changes in itsecological balance program, sustainable development and conducts a low-carbon Group and Affluence.The constructive involvement in global governance shows that India is a responsible power to bothdeveloped and under developing nations.

An Alternative Organic growth through Acquisitions Investigation on Wind Energy

In this paper, attention has been focused on continuous profitable growth which tends to the wind energy business worldwide, willing to go to consummate lengths in its pursuit with horizontal and vertical integration which bring speed, minimum risk to the development strategy at which enables experts to reach guaranteed growth. Organic growth through horizontal and vertical integration strategy in where Ansoff matrix was applied; a proposed management strategy through economic analysis verification has been shown and compared with typical organic strategy outcome. The return of investment with a lower rate of risk investment as objective of the work has been successfully achieved, in order to present a solution to following future challenge, considerable questions after recent Paris Climate Change Conference (PCCC) renowned as “how should EU manage such a big needed asset in order to build/ or buy possible renewable energy projects in the developing world countries?” as long as developed countries have been titled as notable share of greenhouses gases and “how should strong financial leadership make flawless scenarios for clean energy technologies?”. Nonetheless, acceptable financial methodology will be addressed as major study of the paper for only EU grant funding action. Besides, all advantages and disadvantages of the proposed strategy will be discussed.

Local-scale projections of coral reef futures and implications of the Paris Agreement.

Increasingly frequent severe coral bleaching is among the greatest threats to coral reefs posed by climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) project great spatial variation in the timing of annual severe bleaching (ASB) conditions; a point at which reefs are certain to change and recovery will be limited. However, previous model-resolution projections (~1 × 1°) are too coarse to inform conservation planning. To meet the need for higher-resolution projections, we generated statistically downscaled projections (4-km resolution) for all coral reefs; these projections reveal high local-scale variation in ASB. Timing of ASB varies >10 years in 71 of the 87 countries and territories with >500 km2 of reef area. Emissions scenario RCP4.5 represents lower emissions mid-century than will eventuate if pledges made following the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) become reality. These pledges do little to provide reefs with more time to adapt and acclimate prior to severe bleaching conditions occurring annually. RCP4.5 adds 11 years to the global average ASB timing when compared to RCP8.5; however, >75% of reefs still experience ASB before 2070 under RCP4.5. Coral reef futures clearly vary greatly among and within countries, indicating the projections warrant consideration in most reef areas during conservation and management planning.

China's response to climate change issues after Paris Climate Change Conference

The Paris Climate Change Conference was successfully concluded with the Paris Agreement, which is a milestone for the world in collectively combating climate change. By participating in IPCC assessments and conducting national climate change assessments, China has been increasing its understanding of the issue. For the first time, China's top leader attended the Conference of the Parties, which indicates the acknowledgement of the rationality and necessity of climate change response by China at different levels. Moreover, this participation reflects China's commitment to including climate change in its ecology improvement program and pursuing a low-carbon society and economy. In order to ensure the success of the Paris Conference, China has contributed significantly. China's constructive participation in global governance shows that China is a responsible power. These principles such as the creation of a future of win–win cooperation with each country contributing to the best of its ability; a future of the rule of law, fairness, and justice; and a future of inclusiveness, mutual learning, and common development will serve as China's guidelines in its efforts to facilitate the implementation of the Paris Agreement and participate in the design of international systems.

Aligning Transnational Climate Action with International Climate Governance: The Road from Paris

Transnational climate actions have come to constitute a distinguishable sphere of climate governance. Reflecting on the Paris outcome, this article discusses the role of non‐State and subnational actors – especially on the road to the Paris climate change conference. It argues that the intergovernmental and transnational spheres of global climate governance could mutually reinforce each other by continuing mobilization efforts to engage non‐State actors and by harnessing greater ambition, both from State and non‐State actors. For such mutual reinforcement to take effect, however, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change should engage non‐State actors consistently and systematically. The article also argues that the Paris outcome and, above all, the building blocks that are part of the decision on enhancing pre‐2020 action, constitute the most comprehensive framework of non‐State engagement yet, offering a promising basis for mutual reinforcement of the intergovernmental and transnational spheres of global climate governance.

Collective Action in an Asymmetric World

A central authority possessing tax and expenditure responsibilities can readily provide an efficient level of a public good. Absent a central authority, the case with climate change mitigation, voluntary arrangements must replace coercive arrangements; significant under-provision must be expected. Potential contributors have strong incentives to free ride, or to ride cheaply. International public goods are particularly challenging. The players – the nations of the world – are many and they start in quite different circumstances. Voluntary arrangements that might emerge from negotiations fall short for two reasons: First, players frame negotiations from their own standpoint, making stalemate likely. Second, the focal-point solution where contributions are proportional to benefits clashes with the disproportionate incentives little players have to ride cheaply. We identify a solution, the Cheap-Riding Efficient Equilibrium, which defines the relative contributions of players of differing size (or preference intensity) to reflect cheap riding incentives, yet still achieves Pareto optimality. Players start by establishing the Alliance/Nash Equilibrium as a base point. From that point they apply either the principles of the Lindahl Equilibrium or the Nash Bargaining Solution to proceed to the Pareto frontier. The former benefits from its focal-point properties; the latter is a standard analytic tool addressing bargaining. We apply our theory to climate change by first examining the Nordhaus Climate Club proposal. We then test the Alliance Equilibrium model using individual nations' Intended Nationally Determined Contributions pledged at the Paris Climate Change Conference. As hypothesized, larger nations made much larger pledges in proportion to their Gross National Incomes.

Road to Paris: The Changed and Unchanged in International Responsibility System

Since the conclusion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, a number of adjustments have been made in the patterns of international economy, trade, emissions, etc. Developing countries have increased rapidly in their share in global economy, trade as well as emissions, which led to some Parties to the Convention, mainly developed country Parties, faltering on their recognition of the responsibility system of the global response to climate change, and requiring developing countries to undertake responsibility for emission reduction and even financial assistance, intending to transfer obligations and costs in coping with climate change to developing countries. In fact, although the share of developing countries has increased in global economy, trade and emissions, the basic pattern that developed countries account for the absolute majority in cumulative CO2 emissions and control the international financial, trading, technology, and standard systems has not changed. The international responsibility system to deal with climate change has not changed fundamentally, either. Developed countries should continue to lead the global climate initiative, and provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries; developing countries should also take the path of low-carbon development while actively making full use of support from the international community in poverty alleviation and development process. At the Paris Climate Change Conference, Parties should participate in the negotiations with a constructive attitude, actively make planning and implement emission reduction actions, as well as build a fair and efficient financial mechanism, to promote climate-friendly technologies worldwide, establish an open and cooperative international trading system, and jointly facilitate the international cooperation on tackling climate change as a new momentum for global economic growth, so as to protect global climate security.

Paris Climate Change Conference: A Fresh Start of International Climate Governance in the New Era

After tough negotiations, the Paris Agreement finally reached at the Climate Change Conference in Paris. When taking the background into consideration, though the process is tortuous and arduous, the desirability of the Agreement needs no affirmation. Global warming is unequivocal, posing a serious risk to global economic, social sustainable development and natural as well as ecological environment. Scientific evidence shows that human activity is the main cause of current global warming. Tackling climate change should be the path leading the whole society to shift towards low-carbon, green, and circular development, in order to achieve the sustainable development of the international community. World leaders gathered in Paris to discuss actions against climate change and helped establish an international climate governance system after 2020. As governments and the international community are gradually reaching a consensus on the issue of addressing climate change, positive political will and the awareness of win–win cooperation are growing strong. The adoption of the Paris Agreement indicates a new phase of international climate governance, encouraging the parties to participate with more inclusive and practical ways.

The Paris Agreement: a new beginning?

The Paris Climate Change Conference was tasked to set the world on a path to address the greatest challenge to ever face humankind, by adopting a new climate agreement. The outlook for the conference was rather bleak. The laborious and increasingly frequent meetings of the body entrusted to draft the text of the Paris Agreement, the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), had made limited progress. These negotiations had eloquently demonstrated the futility of technical negotiations, without political consensus on the core elements and features of the new agreement. Yet, to the surprise of many, the Paris Conference concluded on 12 December 2015, with the adoption of a new climate treaty.This article reflects on the Paris Conference and on its outcome. First, it collocates the conference in the history of the climate regime. Then, it explains what Parties were expected to deliver. Finally, it assesses the outcome of the conference against these expectations. The article concludes with a reflection on where the climate regime is likely to head next, and where the Paris Agreement leaves Parties in their efforts to tackle climate change.