User:Kaihsu/EnvC5

C5: Climate change protection

1992 Convention on Climate Change
&larr; IPCC set-up 1988; Assessment Report 1, 1990. Preamble: common concern of humankind. Objectives: mitigation and adaptation – stabilise greenhouse gas concentration ‘at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’: art. 2. Principles: intergenerational equity, common but differentiated responsibility, precautionary principle, sustainable development, free trade: art. 3.

All have procedural obligations for estimating greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: art. 4. Annex I countries must limit emissions: art. 4.2. Annex II countries fund: art. 4.4. Subsidiary bodies: scientific and technological advice, implementation: arts. 9, 10.

1997 Kyoto Protocol
← IPCC Assessment Report 2, 1995. Top-down regulatory approach for 6 gases in Annex A: CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, perfluorocarbons, SF6. Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) removal counts.

Flexibility mechanisms: “EU bubble” (arts. 3, 4.6), joint implementation (art. 6, intra Annex I), clean development mechanism CDM (art. 12, beyond Annex I; “certified emission reduction unit” CER), emissions trading (art. 17, Annex B – subset of Annex I); “assigned amount unit” AAU, “emission reduction unit” ERU, removal unit RMU.

← IPCC Assessment Report 3, 2001. COP 7 Marrakesh Accords 2001 further developed e.g. LULUCF, funds under Global Environment Facility, Compliance Committee &larr; expert technical input. USA (then 1/3 world emissions) pulled out 2001 (COP 6 Hague 2000, 6bis Bonn).

Kyoto entered into force 2005 (COP 11 CMP 1 Montreal), with obligations only on Annex I (developed) countries; e.g. Australia, Iceland, Norway were even allowed emissions increase in the first commitment period from 2008 to 2012.

COP 13 CMP 3 Bali 2007 and COP 14 CMP 4 Poznań 2008 set up the Adaptation Fund structure.

2009 Copenhagen Accord
&larr; IPCC Assessment Report 4, 2007. COP 15 CMP 5 Copenhagen only took note of the accord, so not legally binding.

Annex I parties under Kyoto will strengthen reduction and financing; non-Annex I will mitigate too; developed countries will support developing ones (e.g. fund, tech transfer). New issues: 1.5 °C and forests (&larr; CDM; e.g. UN-REDD Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries 2008).

COP 16 Cancún 2010 set up Green Climate Fund &larr; Global Environment Facility, Adaptation Committee, REDD-plus; stated 25 % to 40 % cuts by 2020 to keep below 2 °C, but no progress on land-use change and forestry (LULUCF).

Following COP 17 Durban Platform for Enhanced Action 2011, COP 18 Doha “Climate Gateway” 2012 agreed Kyoto second commitment period from 2013 to 2020 (amended art. 3.1bis, Annex B; not yet in force) with Annex B total 18 % cut below 1990 levels (EU promised 20 %), but right after Canada announced withdrawal from Kyoto 2011-12-13. NF3 was added to Annex A.

COP 19 Warsaw 2013 introduced Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, Warsaw framework for REDD-plus. &rarr; COP 25 established the Santiago Network for Averting, Minimizing, and Addressing Loss and Damage.

New York summit 2014-09: governments, companies and civil society issued the New York Declaration on Forests, but E Eur countries against net-zero by 2100.

COP 20 Lima Agreement 2014 called for intended nationally determined countributions (INDC).

2015 Paris Agreement
&larr; IPCC Assessment Report 5, 2013/2014. This was agreed at COP 21 CMP 11 and came into force 2016-11-04 &larr; “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”: SDG 13. Soft enough not to be a “treaty” under US law (Senate consent not needed), but is under VCLT. “De-internationalized”, “bottom-up” regulatory approach.

Goal (art. 2): temperature rise well below 2 °C, “pursue efforts” to limit it to 1.5 °C. Actions: mitigation (global peaking asap; arts. 3 to 6), adaptation (art. 7), loss and damage (art. 8). Implementation techniques (after Viñuales):
 * Information-based: education (art. 12), transparency (art. 13), global stocktake (art. 14, first one 2023)
 * Facilitation: finance (art. 9), technology transfer (art. 10), capacity-building (art. 11), international cooperation (e.g. REDD, emissions trading; arts. 4 to 6)
 * Compliance and dispute settlement (art. 15, 24)

Ambition: INDCs from Lima will become NDCs for all parties under Paris in 2020 (replacing Kyoto), and ratcheted up every 5 years, facilitated by 2018 Talanoa Dialogue Platform set up from COP 21, 22 (Marrakesh 2016), 23 (Bonn 2017). Measuring, reporting, verification (MRV) at the international level.

There is no enforcement; The committee for the mechanism to “facilitate implementation of and promote compliance [...] shall be expert-based and facilitative in nature and function in a manner that is transparent, non-adversarial and non-punitive”: art. 15, developed at COP 23 Bonn 2017.

&larr; IPCC 1.5 °C Report, 2018: net emissions would need to fall by about 45 % by 2030 from 2010 levels and reach net-zero by 2050.

COP 24 CMP 14 CMA 1.3, December 2018 agreed on Katowice Package incl. ‘rulebook’:
 * Mitigation: transparency (public NDC registry; second NDC submitted by 2025), emissions counting (but not market mechanisms art. 6), financing (mobilizing 100 GUSD/a from 2020 to 2025, Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility), technology transfer
 * Adaptation: communicating, Adaptation Fund
 * Continuing with the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM)
 * Just transition: “Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures” (KCI, decision 7/CMA.1).

Bonn technical meeting 2019-06-17/27 was to move from negotiation to implementation; 2019 UN Climate Action Summit (New York) followed on 2019-09-23. COP 25 was moved from Chile to Madrid, 2019-12.

Political messaging &rarr; Marrakech Action Proclamation for our Climate and Sustainable Development 2016 &rarr; SDGs; ICAO Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA); Kigali ozone amendment.