Politics as Road Blocks to the Implementation of 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement

Abstract

This study is based on the comprehensive study and analysis of Paris Climate
Change Agreement, Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen Accord, the various United
Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change. The outcome of the analysis is that the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty may never achieve the main purpose which is ensuring that average global temperature in 2100 does not exceed 2OC of the pre-industrial level. This is arrived at because the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement is loaded with politics, national interests of parties, unbinding pledges and many proposals that will be very difficult or impossible to implement. For example, this study identifies protection of national interest as one serious road block for the full realization of the Paris Agreement. Though this is very normal in international affairs, it is an obvious weakness which is capable of derailing the Agreement. For instance, the United States of America, one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases has pulled out from the Agreement citing the protection of national interests. This work has identified also many pledges in the Agreement that will be very difficult to implement. The developed countries pledged financial, technological and knowledge transfer to developing countries as necessary components of climate change mitigation and adaptation, but past
pledges of funds including Official Development Assistance (ODA) on HIV/AIDS, poverty alleviation, etc were never kept. The pledge for technology transfer is froth with the issue of intellectual property rights which the Agreement did not address. The same goes for transfer of knowledge which may never happen because knowledge is the secret and source of the technological dominance and wealth of developed nations. The National Determined Contributions (NDCS) are nonbinding pledges for the reduction of greenhouse gases by parties and any of the parties can withdraw or abandon their NDCs without any consequences. Based on the foregoing, the conclusion of this work is that the purposes of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement will never be achieved because of inherent problems, road blocks, politics and non-binding nature of the Agreement.