A presentation by IIED principal researcher Dr Achala Abeysinghe giving an introduction to the Paris Agreement on climate change. The presentation was made at the ecbi Training And Support Programme’s Asian regional training workshop for junior climate negotiators from developing countries, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 14-15 April 2016. More details: http://www.iied.org/workshops-build-climate-negotiators-capacity-european-capacity-building-initiative-training-support

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Introduction to the Paris Agreement
Dr. Achala Abeysinghe
Principal Researcher/ Team Leader
Global Climate Law, Policy and Governance
Achala.abeysinghe@iied.org

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Focus of the presentation
• Overall analysis
• Provisions of the Paris Agreement
• Governance structure
• What’s next?
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Overall analysis
• ‘A major win for multilateralism and
climate diplomacy’
• ‘Truly global agreement’
• ‘Unprecedented global collaboration
on an issue where divisions were
deep and stakes were high’
• ‘Proved that political leadership,
combining economic incentives and
peer pressure, guided intelligently by
the United Nations , can produce the
effective global agreements’
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Why is it important?
• Legally binding agreement
• Universal participation
• Many new elements to address climate change
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Preamble
Article 1: Definitions
Article 2: purpose
Article 3: Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs
Article 4: Mitigation
Article 5: Greenhouse gas sinks and reservoirs and REDD+
Article 6: Cooperative approaches
Article 7: Adaptation
Article 8: Loss and damage
Article 9: Finance
Article 10: Technology development and transfer
Article 11: Capacity building
Article 12: Climate change awareness and education
Article 13: Transparency
Article 14: Global stocktake
Article 15: Facilitating implementation and compliance

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Article 16: Conference of the Parties serving as meeting of the
Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA)
Article 17: Secretariat
Article 18: SBI and SBSTA
Article 19: Other bodies and institutional arrangements to
serve the Agreement
Article 20: Signature and ratification
Article 21: Entry into force
Article 22: Amendments
Article 23: Annexes
Article 24: Dispute settlement
Article 25: Voting
Article 26: Depository
Article 27: Reservations
Article 28: Withdrawal
Article 29: Languages

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Paris Agreement
Mitigation
(Art 3-6)
Adaptation
(Art 7)
Loss & damage
(Art 8)
Global
goal
Art. 2
Action
areas
Implementation
Techniques
Information based approaches
1. Transparency mechanism (Art 13) ?
2. Global Stocktake (Art 14) ?
3. Education ( Art 12) ?
Facilitation based approaches
1. Finance (Art 9) ?
2. Technology development and transfer (Art 10) ?
3. Capacity building (art 11) ?
4. International cooperation (Art 4-6) ?
Compliance & dispute settlement
1. Compliance mechanism (Art 15) ?
2. Dispute settlements (Art 24) ?
Ref. Prof. Jorge E. Vinuales

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Key provisions
Temperature goal
• keep global temperature
rise well below 2°C
above pre-industrial
level while pursuing
efforts to limit it to
1.5°C; increase the ability
to adapt
Mitigation
• Aims to reach global
peaking of emissions as
soon as possible, to
achieve a balance between
anthropogenic emissions
by sources and removals
by sinks of greenhouse
gases in the second half of
this century
• All countries to submit
INDCs and ensure they
progress over time.
• All countries are
encouraged to formulate
and submit a long term
low-emission
development strategy
Adaptation
• Establishes a global
goal on adaptation
to ensure an adequate
adaptation response
in the context of the
temperature goal.
• All countries should
submit adaptation
communications,
detailing adaptation
priorities, support
needs, plans and
actions, which should
be updated
periodically. .

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Finance
• Developed
countries will
provide financial
resources to
developing
countries to assist
them with their
mitigation and
adaptation efforts,
and will report their
public
• The commitment
of US$100 billion
annually will be
the floor– a higher
goal will be set
sometime before
2025.
Tech dev and Transfer
• Existing technology
mechanism to serve
the Agreement
• A technology
framework that
provides strategic
guidance.
• The agreement also
stipulates that
financial support
will be provided to
developing
countries to address
technology
development and
transfer.
Capacity building
• Emphasizes the
capacity building
needs of countries
with the least
capacity such as the
LDCs and SIDS

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Transparency
• Establishes an
enhanced
transparency
framework to
enhance the
transparency of action
and support,
• It is facilitative and
non-punitive.
• Developing countries
will receive support for
the implementation of
the transparency
arrangements.
Global Stocktake
• A global stocktake
will take place every
five years from 2023
onwards, to assess
collective progress
towards achieving the
purpose of the
Agreement and its
long-term goals.
Facilitating
implementation and
compliance
•The Agreement
establishes a
mechanism, consisting
of a committee of
experts, to facilitate
implementation in a
transparent and non-
punitive manner, and
promote compliance with
the Paris Agreement.

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Ratcheting up ambition
• Communicate contributions (NDCs) -
every 5 years
• Reporting on progress every 2 years
• Technical Expert Review and Multilateral
consideration - of information reported
• Stock-take - of Parties’ aggregate progress
toward global goals, to inform next set of
NDCs - every 5 years
• Compliance Committee – standing body to
facilitate implementation, promote
compliance
“Holding…well
below 2oC” AND
“pursuing efforts
to limit…to 1.5oC”
Global peaking;
then emissions to
net zero in 2nd half
of century
Nationally
Determined
Contributions
(NDCs)
5 year NDC cycles –
“progression” &
“highest possible
ambition”
2018
Facilitative
Dialogue and 5
yearly global
stocktake

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Governance of the Paris
Agreement
• The Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris
Agreement will govern the business related to the Paris Agreement (starts after
the entry into force of the Agreement).
• Subsidiary bodies of the UNFCCC (SBI and SBSTA) will continue to serve the
Paris Agreement. If necessary, the CMA may establish additional subsidiary
bodies that are needed for the implementation of the agreement.
• An Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) will prepare the
entry into force of the agreement and develop further rules and guidance.
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What’s next?
• Signing of the Paris Agreement on 22nd April
2016
• Domestic ratification process starts
• Ad hoc working group on Paris Agreement will
start its work in May (see the agenda on the
UNFCCC website)

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Thank you!
achala.abeysinghe@iied.org