The Paris Agreement: Mitigating Global Warming Through Binding National Commitments

Abstract

Course name Instructor’s name Assignment due date [Name] [Author] is an international treaty signed by 195 countries during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France that seeks to limit global warming. The main idea of the legally binding agreement was to limit the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industry levels (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2022). The agreement set in motion measures to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industry levels by encouraging the contributions of member countries towards this goal. The 2 degrees threshold is considered critical above which there would be irreversible effects on life and ecosystems on the planet. To prevent such extents of global warming, the agreement intended to reduce the increase by well below two degrees with the goal of maintaining the increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius. The treaty seeks to achieve this goal by encouraging countries to contribute their share in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and prevent climate change. The aspect of the Paris Agreement that has the largest impact on minimizing anthropogenic contributions is “Mitigation.” Since the late 1980s, climate change has been a global issue that nations, organizations, and scientists have sought to address. Mitigation is an aspect of the 2015 Paris Agreement that requires countries to work domestically to achieve a global objective (UNFCCC, 2022). The nationally determined contribution (NDC) establishes the domestic measures each member country intends to adopt and a binding commitment to implement strategies to lower greenhouse gas emissions. It is the aspect with the largest impact on anthropogenic contributions since it brings countries together in a binding agreement for the first time in more than three decades when climate change became a global issue. References United Nations...