Dan Lewis

Australia Ratify Paris Agreement

Australia`s INDC said that “Australia will achieve a macroeconomic target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28% from 2005 levels by 2030.” The comparison of objectives between Member States is made difficult by the use of different base years and by different target years. For example, the EU and its member states are individually responsible for ratifying the Paris Agreement. There was a strong preference for the EU and its 28 Member States to simultaneously table their ratification instruments to ensure that neither the EU nor its Member States commit to obligations that belong exclusively to the other[21] and there was concern that there was a disagreement over each Member State`s share of the EU-wide reduction target. just as Britain`s vote to leave the EU could delay the Paris pact. [22] However, on 4 October 2016, the European Parliament approved the ratification of the Paris Agreement[23] and the EU tabled its ratification instruments on 5 October 2016 with several EU Member States. [22] The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 197 parties at the 21st UNFCCC Conference of parties in Paris and agreed on 12 December 2015. [2] [3] The agreement was signed at UN Headquarters in New York from 22 April 2016 to 21 April 2017 by states and regional economic integration organisations parties to the UNFCCC (convention). [4] The agreement stated that it would only enter into force if 55 countries that produce at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions (according to a list drawn up in 2015)[5] ratify, accept, approve or adhere to the agreement. [6] On April 1, 2016, the United States and China, which together account for nearly 40% of global emissions, issued a joint statement confirming that the two countries would sign the Paris Climate Agreement. [9] 175 contracting parties (174 states and the European Union) signed the agreement on the first day of its signing. [10] [11] On the same day, more than 20 countries announced plans to join the accession as soon as possible in 2016.

The ratification by the European Union has achieved a sufficient number of contracting parties to enter into force on 4 November 2016. On November 4, 2019, the United States informed the custodian of its withdrawal from the agreement, which will take effect exactly one year after that date. [30] The professors, all from Australian universities, argued that the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement were “completely separate treaties”. As such, they stated that the Kyoto appropriations could only be used to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement, if this had been decided and agreed by all the contracting parties to the agreement. The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that deals with the reduction, adaptation and financing of greenhouse gas emissions from 2020. The agreement aims to address the threat of global climate change by keeping global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels this century and to continue efforts to further limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. [1] The Kyoto Protocol is an instrument of the climate convention that was adopted in 1997 at the Third Conference of the Parties (COP 3), which did not enter into force until 2005. [1] The Kyoto Protocol requires some industrialized countries (the “Schedule I parts”) to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The protocol has placed a greater burden on developed countries, which are largely responsible for high greenhouse gas emissions (so-called “common but differentiated responsibilities”).