The Paris Agreement: Wins and Where We Still Need to Go
December 18th, 2020
Written by Natalie Lucas and Alissa DeLaFuente
This past weekend was the five-year anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement. We thought it might be a good time to reflect on what this accomplishment secured for climate justice and action toward a sustainable future, and also what was missing from the initial agreement as we’re looking toward a sustainable future for all peoples across the globe.
Wins
Seminal: This Paris Agreement was the first of agreement of its kind attempting to facilitate global cooperation to mitigate the effects of climate change that all countries in the United Nations signed. It was also the first environmental agreement that mentioned the need to protect human rights, consider the impacts of gender and society on the conversation, and include intergenerational equity as part of the agreement.
The agreed global threshold for limited warming was changed from 2 degrees Celsius on average to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This will still cause harm to vulnerable communities, but does avoid serious global tipping points.
There is large buy-in from high carbon-producing nations: 192 nations signed this agreement, pledging to reduce their carbon footprint.
Areas of Improvement
Large Emissions Gap: The Paris Agreement is and was a start, but we are still on track for a 3 degree Celsius increase in average temperature with the current pledges from signatories of the Paris Agreement (Climate Action Tracker). Since countries are making their pledges, or Nationally Determined Contributions, on their own and voluntarily it is challenging to make sure we reach goals globally to limit emissions. The Paris Agreement lacks an accountability or enforcement mechanism. As the 2019 Emissions Gap Report from the United Nations Environmental Program indicates, there is a “commitment gap” from what we have to where we currently need to be (Emissions Gap Report). This commitment gap is a serious weakness that will impact our goal of closing the emissions gap to prevent catastrophic warming.
Does Not Recognize Historical Emissions: Due to the way that the Paris Agreement was written and how larger developed nations, like the US, downplayed historical emissions, the Agreement does not hold accountable those who are most responsible for creating the problem. There are some implications that developed nations should bear a larger responsibility, but when it comes to holding those nations accountable or holding them to a higher standard, it is a critical piece that is missing.
Safety: Some environmental activists in corrupt nations are being assassinated, jailed, or silenced as they fight for climate justice and accountability. Internationally, over 200 environmental activists were murdered in 2019. Melissa Godin reported that ⅔ of the deaths occured in Latin America, and that inidigenous people are disproportionately killed. In Brazil alone 90% of their activist deaths were indigenous people in the Amazon. Human rights, especially the right to life, need to be protected, and the international community needs to step in and protect people. This is especially true when it comes to logging and land use conflicts since this is where the greatest threat to safety is coming from.
Equity: When discussing climate justice, many folks discuss human rights, gender, intergenerational equity, indigenous rights etc. However, there is a topic that intersects with all of these issues, has deep impacts on our societies all over the world, and is usually omitted from the climate conversation - racism. In fact, no attention to racial justice or related topics is included in the Paris Agreement or in many of the implementation discussions. As a result, vulnerable and marginalized populations are overlooked when it comes to accessing resources and having a say in the implementation of climate solutions. For example, a large solar energy project in Morocco has diverted water from Ouarzazate that relied on it for survival, which could lead to drought and desertification (Environmental Justice Atlas).
All of this is deeply embedded in historical racial tensions that have plagued humankind since the rise of nations. Moving forward, leaders need to consider marginalized perspectives and concerns as they develop and implement climate solutions and adaptation measures.
Lack of Investment: Though part of the promise of the Paris Agreement, many of the richest countries have not contributed the amounts they have promised to the Green Climate Fund (Economic Times). This impacts the poorer countries who need this money to make changes to reduce their carbon footprint.
How can I help with the implementation of the Paris Agreement?
Luckily there is a lot you can do at the national level in order to make sure we do this right.
Make sure the pledges are aligned with what we need to actually accomplish, that they are just and equitable, and that they can be implemented in your country in a way that helps those most vulnerable.
If the pledges or the implementation of the pledges are not sufficient from a scientific or equity perspective, call it out. Write letters to your news sites, meet with your political officials, and work with other groups like Care About Climate to tell your story.
Demand finance. It is going to be important that resources are deployed where they need to be in order to make sure we can work to solve this problem together. If you are in a developed country, call on your country to make the investments in the global community that it needs to. If you are in a developing country, tell the stories of the impacts you are feeling without the support that you need.
Raise the voices of those most marginalized in your country. People are being impacted by climate change now, and those that started from a harder place are going to be impacted more because they will not have the resources to escape climate impacts in some cases. Those people need to be heard and resources need to be allocated to them.
Be part of climate solutions. Bring up new big ideas for how we can solve problems. The more untraditional the better. We need big, bold solutions to solve big problems. So think about it, and talk about it to start a public dialogue.
Be a part of the climate movement and support Care About Climate’s goal to unite the climate movement by becoming a member today!