Climate Action 2016-2017

MAINTAINING
THE PARIS
MOMENTUM
MAINTAINING MOMENTUM
Janos Pasztor, Senior Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Change,
celebrates the uniqueness of the Paris Agreement, but warns that swift action
is necessary if the temperature goals are not to be missed.
The importance of the 2015 UN Conference
on Climate Change in Paris and the
resulting Paris Agreement cannot be
sufficiently underscored. It was a tremendous
success in that it showed that multilateral action
under a United Nations framework can deliver
results. At least four specific success areas need
to be highlighted.
Firstly, Paris was a political success that
surpassed all expectations. On the first day
of the conference 150 heads of state and
government leaders came together, all under
one roof, on one day – a historical record – and
they all spoke of the importance of climate
change and the urgency for action; and they
instructed their negotiators to negotiate an
ambitious agreement. These leaders did not
negotiate the agreement themselves, but
they gave strong political guidance at the
appropriate time. Moreover, by the beginning
of the meeting, some 188 Parties had also
deposited their initial Nationally Determined
Contributions (NDCs), or bottom up national
climate change plans. This itself was a big
success, showing that all countries were
serious about undertaking climate action.
"The goals together provide
a clear signal to investors,
technology developers,
insurance companies,
as well as various other
non-state actors about
the low carbon, low
emissions era that the
world has agreed to ."
Secondly, the Paris Agreement has a clear
vision about the direction the world needs to
go. It agreed on a very ambitious goal to keep
global temperature rise to well below 2°C, and if
possible consider keeping it below 1.5°C above
historical average. This temperature goal was
then combined with the objective to reach a
balance between global emissions and sinks
of greenhouse gases in the second half of this
century – in other words to reach a net zero
emissions scenario at the global level. The goals
together provide a clear signal to investors,
technology developers, insurance companies,
as well as various other non-state actors about
the low carbon, low emissions era that the world
has agreed to in Paris. The direction of travel has
become clear.
Thirdly, the Agreement has a series of legally
binding provisions on countries having to take
action on mitigation, adaptation, provision of
financial resources, and on participating in a
transparent reporting and monitoring framework.
Fourthly, the Paris Agreement was a success
not only because of the full participation of
governments in the final agreement, but also
because of the tremendous active participation
of representatives of the non-state sector,
especially through the ‘Action Agenda’, where
they demonstrated what they were already
doing on climate action, and what else they were
prepared to do in the future.
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