Climate Change and Paris Agreement: Challenges after US Withdrawal

by Pradeep S. Chauhan

Overview

Climate change, caused by the building up of green house gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, is a serious global environmental concern. Climate change occupies a high priority on the environmental agenda of international community. Vulnerabilities of India to climate change—in particular impacts on water resources, forests, coastal areas, agriculture, and health—need to be identified and appropriate remedial measures taken. The Paris Agreement, 2015, marks the latest step in the evolution of the UN climate change regime. Since global warming is caused by total accumulation of GHGs and each country’s emissions add to the stock, the cost of each country’s emissions is borne by the entire global community. Similarly, the benefits of reduction in emission by any one country accrue not to the country itself but to the entire global community. This is classically a situation characterized by externalities in which individual countries will not have a sufficient incentive to undertake mitigation unless all countries co-operate with an equitable distribution of the burden of reducing emissions. This book provides an exhaustive account of environmental problems and the attending consequences. More importantly, it attempts to summarize the developments leading to the adoption of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015. It provides an overview of the contents of Paris Agreement, its implementation process and the roles of the main parties and other stakeholders. Challenges after the US withdrawal from the Climate Change Agreement are also briefly discussed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788177084818
Publisher:	New Century Publications
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Edition description:	None
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr. Pradeep S. Chauhan is presently a visiting Professor at University of California, Berkeley, California, USA. A well-known economist, he is originally based at Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India. He is M.Phil. (Gold Medallist) and a Doctorate in Economics. His illustrious academic career includes the prestigious French Government Fellowship under the aegis of which he pursued his research and teaching at the Paris School of Economics, Paris. He has also been Agatha Harrison Memorial Fellow at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford for three years. He has been visiting professor at many world renowned institutions and universities. Dr. Chauhan has published 12 books and is an expert in the areas of social and political economy of South Asia. He has completed many research projects and authored a number of quality research publications. He has presented papers at many national and international conferences. He has been appointed the Associate Research Director (Directeurs d’Études AssociÉs), at Fondation Maison des Sciences de L’homme (FMSH), Paris, France.

Table of Contents

About the Book v

About the Author vi

Preface xi-xii

1 Global Climate Change: Evidence, Consequences and Action 1

1.1 Evidence on Climate Change

1.2 Consequences of Climate Change

1.3 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

1.4 Kyoto Protocol

1.5 Copenhagen Accord, 2009 and Cancun Agreements, 2010

1.6 Paris Agreement, 2015

2 Impact of Climate Change on India 13

2.1 Climate Change and Human Settlements

2.2 Climate Change and Water Supply

2.3 Occurrence of Droughts

2.4 River Hydrology and Inland Flooding

2.5 Cyclonic Storms, Storm Surges and Coastal Flooding

2.6 Sea Level Rise

2.7 India's Approach to Climate Change

3 National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and Other Initiatives 21

3.1 National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)

3.2 Eight National Missions of NAPCC

3.3 Other National and Sub-National Initiatives

3.4 Ozone Layer Protection

4 Climate Negotiations in Historical Perspective 38

4.1 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

4.2 Conference of the Parties (COP)

4.3 Subsidiary Bodies under the Convention (SBSTA, SBI)

4.4 Kyoto Protocol and the Doha Amendment

4.5 Doha Amendment

4.6 Towards a New Agreement

4.7 Conference of Parties in Paris, 2015

5 Salient Features of Paris Agreement 47

5.1 Mitigation

5.2 Adaptation

5.3 Loss and Damage

5.4 Finance

5.5 Technology Development and Transfer

5.6 Capacity-building

5.7 Transparency of Action and Support

5.8 Global Stocktake and Increasing Ambition

5.9 Compliance, Meetings, Entry into Force

5.10 Enhanced Action Prior to 2020

5.11 Summary and Discussion

6 Implementation of Paris Agreement 63

6.1 Conditions for Entering into Force

6.2 Progress of Ratification and Entry into Force

6.3 Conditions for Withdrawal

6.4 Negotiation Bodies under the Paris Agreement

6.5 Conference of Parties in Marrakesh, 2016

6.6 Mitigation

6.7 Adaptation

6.8 Loss and Damage

6.9 Financial Mechanisms

6.10 Technology Development and Transfer

6.11 Capacity-building

6.12 Transparency of Action and Support

6.13 Global Stocktake and Increasing Ambition

6.14 Compliance, Meetings, Entry into Force

6.15 Progress on Temperature Goal of Paris Agreement

7 Main Parties of the Paris Agreement in Terms of Share of Emissions 78

7.1 China

7.2 United States of America

7.3 European Union

7.4 India

7.5 Russian Federation

7.6 Japan

8 Role of Different Organizations 97

8.1 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

8.2 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

8.3 International Maritime Organization (IMO)

8.4 World Bank Group

9 Recent Global Developments Linked to Climate Change 106

9.1 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

9.2 Energy Markets and Policies

9.3 Refugee Crisis and Migration

9.4 Emerging Topics: Geo-engineering

10 United States Withdrawal from Paris Agreement and Challenges Ahead 118

Appendix: Paris Agreement 123

Bibliography 153

Index 159