ABSTRACT

In December 2015, 196 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Paris Agreement, seen as a decisive landmark for global action to stop human- induced climate change. The Paris Agreement will replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2020, and it creates legally binding obligations on the parties, based on their own bottom-up voluntary commitments to implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The codification of the climate change regime has advanced well, but the implementation of it remains uncertain.

This book focuses on the implementation prospects of the Agreement, which is a challenge for all and will require a fully comprehensive burden- sharing framework. Parties need to meet their own NDCs, but also to finance and transfer technology to others who do not have enough. How equity- based and facilitative the process will be, is of crucial importance. The volume examines a broad range of issues including the lessons that can be learnt from the implementation of previous environmental legal regimes, climate policies at national and sub-national levels and whether the implementation mechanisms in the Paris Agreement are likely to be sufficient.

Written by leading experts and practitioners, the book diagnoses the gaps and lays the ground for future exploration of implementation options. This collection will be of interest to policy-makers, academics, practitioners, students and researchers focusing on climate change governance.

chapter 2|23 pages

‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ law on climate change

Comparing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol with the 2015 Paris Agreement

chapter 4|22 pages

Promoting the implementation of international environmental law

Mechanisms, obligations and indicators

chapter 5|25 pages

Strengthening compliance under the Convention on Biological Diversity

Comparing follow-up and review systems with the global climate regime

chapter 6|22 pages

Five short words and a moral reckoning

The Paris regime’s CMA-APA equity stocktake process

chapter 9|13 pages

Technological ethics, faith and climate control

The misleading rhetoric surrounding the Paris Agreement

chapter 11|15 pages

After Paris

Do we need an international agreement on green compulsory licensing?

chapter 14|10 pages

Paris Agreement and climate change in India

To be or not to be?

chapter 15|31 pages

Comparing the US and India on climate change

How the tables turned

chapter 16|20 pages

Cities and the Paris Agreement

chapter 17|14 pages

Beyond COP 21

What does the Paris Agreement mean for European climate and energy policy?