The rules that will govern the world’s most ambitious climate pact were approved on Saturday by the nearly 200 countries that signed the Paris climate agreement, following two weeks of tense negotiations that at times appeared to be deadlocked. China, the US and EU reached a compromise over a single set of rules that will govern how countries measure and report their emissions and their climate targets, as they seek to limit global warming to well below 2C.
The rules will eliminate an earlier distinction between developed and developing countries over their commitments, however, the final deal failed to include provisions on a global carbon market mechanism. As the gavel was banged at 10pm on Saturday following all-night negotiations and numerous delays, ministers and delegates broke into applause and hugs. Xie Zhenhua, China’s climate chief and an architect of the Paris agreement, welcomed the deal. “Climate change is the greatest challenge of mankind, in front of it no country is spared, and destinies are shared,” he said. Mr Xie added that the agreement “is a victory of multilateralism”. The US announced last year that would pull out of the Paris climate pact, although it cannot formally do so until 2020. In the meantime, it continues to take part in the annual UN climate talks. “Now we have a rule book and finally the Paris agreement is complete,” said Ola Elvestuen, Norway’s environment minister. However, he added that the hardest part — reducing actual emissions — was still ahead. “We have the system, but the work starts now.”
Recommended Special Report Managing Climate Change — Special Report The Paris climate agreement approved in 2015 aimed to limit global warming to well below 2C but left the rules on how to achieve that to be worked out later. That was the main task of the negotiators gathered in Katowice. Some environmental groups criticised the deal for failing to demand more urgent cuts to emissions.
Earlier in the week, objections from the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait over a recent scientific report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sparked a heated debate that resulted in watered down language used to describe the study. Alden Meyer, policy head at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that the deal was “a bit of a mixed bag”. “When you turn to climate ambition it is a fairly weak response to the clarion call from scientists just over two months ago,” he said.
“If you look at the IPCC report, it really constitutes a declaration of planetary emergency.” Under the terms of the Paris agreement, which takes effect in 2020 and has no end date, countries will be able to set their own climate targets. The deal passed this weekend includes a universal system for measuring and reporting emissions, whereby all countries will abide by the same rules that will take effect in 2024.
The rules also include on a global “stocktake” every five years, starting in 2023, which will measure whether emissions are on track to keep global warming within the limit. The biggest sticking point in the final hours of the Katowice meeting was over carbon markets — a provision for a global scheme that would allow countries to trade emissions reductions.
The article related to this issue was largely deleted from the final agreement due to opposition from Brazil, with the carbon market discussion delayed to next year. Catherine McKenna, Canada’s environment minister, said that getting the carbon market right was important to help channel investment into projects that reduce emissions. “This is a complicated provision, it is technical, and you need to get the rules right in order to spur the investment and the private sector investment that is needed,” she said.