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[1] (December 15, 2015)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthabezm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: CRS INSIGHT Climate Change Pact Agreed in Paris December 15, 2015 (IN10413) Related Author * Jane A Leggett Jane A. Leggett, Specialist in Energy and Environmental Policy (jaleggett .cr bcovg, 7-9525) Delegations of 195 nations adopted, on December 12, 2015, a Paris Agreement that creates a structure for nations to pledge to abate their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to adapt to climate change, and to cooperate to these ends, including financial and other support. A single framework to promote transparency and track progress of Parties' efforts applies, for the first time, to all Parties. The Parties also adopted a Dcision to give effect to the Paris Agreement. Both the Decision and the Agreement (hereinafter capitalized) are intended to be legally binding on Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCCC) and the new Agreement, respectively, though not all provisions within them are mandatory. Both are subsidiary to the UNFCCC, which the United States ratified with the advice and consent of the Senate (Treaty Document 102-38, October 7, 1992) and entered into force in 1994. Whether the new Paris Agreement or Decision would require Senate advice and consent depends on the content of the agreements. In particular, if either were to contain new legal obligations on the United States, it would favor requiring Senate consent to ratification. However, the United States and other Parties to the UNFCCC accepted many legally binding obligations when they ratified the Convention, including control of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, preparation to adapt to climate change, international cooperation and support, and regular reporting of emissions and actions with international review. Some have argued that the Paris Agreement does not require more of the United States than it is already obligated to do under the UNFCCC, while others have argued that it does. Purpose and Post-2050 Balance of Emissions and Removals The agreement states that it aims to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 'C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 'C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. This purpose is stated as enhancing the implementation of the UNFCCC, including its objective to stabilize GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system. In order to achieve this long-term temperature goal, Parties aim to make their GHG emission peak as soon as possible and then to reduce them rapidly so as to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century. In other words, the Agreement envisions achieving net zero anthropogenic emissions. While this is arguably synonymous with the UNFCCC's objective of stabilizing GHG atmospheric concentrations, the Agreement puts a timeframe on the objective for the first time. However, as a collective objective, the Agreement provides no means to hold an individual Party accountable if the objective were not

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