The Paris Agreement is a treaty that is legally binding within the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It focuses on climate change mitigation,
adaptation, and finance. It not until on December 12, 2015 when it was adopted by 169 parties
during the 21 st conference of the parties of the UNFCCC held in Paris, France. It entered into
force on November 4, the following year, 2016 as 55 parties were required to ratify the
agreement before it could be enforced. The treaty’s primary objective is to
reduce global warming to levels below 2°C, which is slightly above the level it was before the
industrialization. The Agreement further pursues the efforts to lower the rate of
global warming to 1.5 °C. Experts agrees that this would mitigate the negative impacts of climate
change. The Paris Agreement also seeks to increase member states’ ability
overcome the negative consequences of climate change. It also finances programs that lower the
level of emissions and enhance climate-resilient infrastructural development.
The Paris Agreement
As required by the Paris Agreement, each member state must devise a plan, execute it,
and continually report the progress made towards reducing the global warming effect. In other
words, each of the 190 member countries of UNFCCC is at liberty to set a specific emission
reduction target that they intend to achieve at a given date. It is also important to note that only
90 parties that have ratified the agreement. Each country’s target is determined by financial capability, the level of development, and the amount of carbon emissions.
The Paris Agreement works in a five-year cycle and requires each country’s target to go beyond the previous ones. The Agreement also requires the developed countries to finance programs that mitigate climate change in developing countries, especially those that are more vulnerable. In December 2015, President Barrack Obama stated that the U.S. had committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. In his speech, he envisioned that the treaty would make the world safer, more secure, freer, and more prosperous. APA style