How Did the Paris Climate Agreement Start

The Paris Climate Agreement, also known as the Paris Agreement, is a global agreement among United Nations member countries to tackle climate change and its impacts. It was adopted on December 12, 2015, and officially entered into force on November 4, 2016. The Paris Climate Agreement is considered a landmark deal because it is the first time that all countries, developed and developing, agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.

The Paris Climate Agreement was born out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC was established in 1992 with the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. The UNFCCC holds annual conferences, called COP (Conference of the Parties), where countries come together to discuss and negotiate climate change action.

The idea of a global agreement to tackle climate change gained traction in 2007 with the adoption of the Bali Road Map. This plan outlined a two-year process to negotiate a post-2012 climate change agreement. The Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 was supposed to be the year when a new global climate agreement would be adopted, but it ended in disappointment when no binding agreement was reached.

The Paris climate conference, known as COP21, was held from November 30 to December 12, 2015. It was attended by 196 countries and sought to adopt a new agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which was set to expire in 2020. The Paris Agreement was negotiated over two weeks and closed with celebratory speeches from world leaders and activists.

The Paris Agreement sets out a goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably below 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this goal, countries agreed to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs), which outline their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement also requires countries to update their NDCs every five years and to report on their progress.

In conclusion, the Paris Climate Agreement was born out of the UNFCCC and years of negotiations between countries to tackle climate change. It represents a historic global effort to combat the threat of global warming and its impacts on the environment and humanity. Thanks to the Paris Agreement, the world is taking concrete steps towards a sustainable future.