{"id":6205,"date":"2018-12-17T18:07:44","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T23:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=6205"},"modified":"2018-12-17T18:07:44","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T23:07:44","slug":"cop24-setting-the-paris-agreement-in-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2018\/12\/17\/cop24-setting-the-paris-agreement-in-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"COP24: Setting the Paris Agreement in Motion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Ama Francis <\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 Climate Law Fellow Ama Francis at COP24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After delays and closed-door dealings, this Saturday marked the conclusion of Conference of the Parties Twenty-Four (COP24), the annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP24 set in motion the momentous Paris Agreement<\/a>, wherein 196 countries agreed to keep\u00a0 global average temperature to 2\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels while striving to hold temperature increase below 1.5\u00b0C. At COP24, countries decided on rules for implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement (the Paris Rulebook), including guidelines for nationally-determined contributions (NDCs), transparency, and finance. Island states also pushed countries to act fast to limit global warming given the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1.5\u00b0C Special Report<\/a> which cautions that global warming could reach 1.5\u00b0C, an existential threshold, as soon as 2030. With the release of the IPCC 1.5\u00b0C Report and a Global Carbon Project study<\/a> that shows that carbon dioxide emissions will rise 2.7% by the end of this year, COP24 was the time to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to move,\u201d the Polish COP24 President announced days from closing, as major issues remained unresolved. \u201cClimate change will not wait for us.”<\/p>\n

The following are some of the key issues that brought the work of reaching a COP24 agreement<\/a> down to the wire.<\/p>\n

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NDCs: <\/strong>The Paris Rulebook specifies the information Parties are to include in their NDCs, and sets guidelines for the accounting methodology for emissions and removals. Parties to date have included widely varying information in their NDCs making it hard to assess the progress towards the Paris Agreement\u2019s goal of limiting global warming. (Recent data from Climate Action Tracker<\/a> shows that current government pledges, including NDCs, only add up to limiting warming to 3.0\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels). COP24 sets out new NDC rules, requiring Parties to include information like a quantified reference point, time frame for implementation, scope and coverage of the NDC target, and how the NDC contributes towards achieving the Paris temperature goal. Parties also decided that the IPCC will set the accounting methodology for anthropogenic emissions and removals. All NDCs will be available in a public registry.<\/p>\n

Transparency: <\/strong>The transparency rules are key to making sure Parties stick to their stated goals because of Paris\u2019 bottom-up approach. Key issues for this section of the Paris Rulebook included the flexibility available for developing countries and the transparency rules\u2019 start date:<\/p>\n