Paris Climate Agreement 2016

In science and environmental circles, the first week of October 2016 will be remembered as the decisive time in which the final two milestones that kept the Paris Climate Agreement from becoming a binding international treaty were overcome. Generally speaking, the Paris Agreement was designed to control and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere, with the ultimate goal of providing a legal mechanism with which countries would set stringent GHG emissions targets to keep the temperature of Earth’s lower atmosphere well below the critical threshold of 2 °C (3.6 °F) above preindustrial temperatures.

Just fewer than 200 countries adopted the plan to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took place in Paris, France, in December 2015. Although that event was heralded as a watershed moment in how human beings interacted with Earth’s atmosphere, it was only the first step in a long process designed to hold countries accountable for their emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases. By adopting the plan in Paris last December, these countries simply agreed to the text. The agreement would only come into effect 30 days after at least 55 countries ratified it and those countries accounted for at least 55% of all GHGs emitted worldwide.

On Earth Day 2016 (that is, April 22nd), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon held a formal signing ceremony in New York City. There, 174 countries signed the agreement, which signaled their intention to avoid activities that run contrary to the agreement. Of the 55 countries needed to formally ratify the agreement (that is, agree to become formally bound by the treaty [by depositing documents with the United Nations signed by the country’s key national officials]) 15 countries did so on Earth Day. The planet’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, China and the United States, ratified the agreement a few months later on September 3rd, with India (another major emitter) ratifying the agreement on October 3rd, 2016. By October 4th, some 52% of global greenhouse gas emissions had been accounted for, only 3% short of the goal.

The first of the week’s milestones with respect to worldwide emissions accounting took place on October 4th, with representatives from each of the 28 European Union member states voting to ratify the agreement by the overwhelming margin of 610 to 38. The second milestone, the emissions goal, was reached only a few days later on October 5th, when the United Nations’ treaty collection Web site noted that all ratification goals associated with the treaty had been fulfilled. The EU’s vote and ratification brought the country count up to 73—well over the 55 needed. The EU’s actions also meant that the total of world emissions accounted for increased to just under 57%—which surpassed the 55% benchmark, leaving the agreement free to come into force. The Paris Agreement is slated to become fully legal and binding 30 days later, on November 4th, 2016.