The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Background, Analysis, and Implications

This paper presents a critical analysis of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, agreed upon by more than 180 countries at the Twenty-First Conference of Parties (COP 21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The article traces the development of the major issues and points of disagreement in climate negotiations from the Copenhagen summit of 2009 to COP 21 at Paris. The paper argues that the outcomes of COP 21 fell conspicuously short of the world’s requirements in terms of climate science and equity among countries. The paper argues for carbon budgets and, in that context, further argues that the Paris Conference has set goals that are at odds with the feasibility of such goals as indicated in the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In general, the Paris Agreement perpetuates the low levels of climate action thus far undertaken by the developed nations while offering little concrete assistance to the less-developed nations. The overall result of the agreement is likely to be, for the people of the less-developed nations, greater danger for those vulnerable to the impact of climate change and greater difficulty in guaranteeing the energy basis of their future development.