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Journalism of Courage
Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.
(Relevance: Key environmental agreements are of vital importance. UPSC has previously asked questions on various agreements at different stages of examination. In this context, knowing about the agreements in the news becomes essential.)
The White House has confirmed that President Donald Trump will once again withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. He has repeatedly referred to climate change as a “hoax” and seeks to free US oil and gas industries from environmental regulations. Interestingly, Trump had previously pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement during his first term, but his successor, Joe Biden, had rejoined four years later.
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it. We’re going to use it,” Trump said.
1. Trump did not mention the Paris Agreement in his inauguration speech on Monday. However, he committed to reversing some climate-friendly energy policies implemented in last few years and reiterated his promise to increase oil and gas extraction to meet America’s energy needs.
2. Trump’s decisions threaten to jeopardise global climate action even further. Notably, the US is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. Its decision to extract, use, and export more fossil fuels could negate actions towards achieving the Paris Agreement targets.
| “Drill, baby, drill”: Trump vows to pump, export more oil |
| Donald Trump’s first speech as the 47th President of the United States featured various slogans that he employed during his presidential campaign, and among them was “Drill, baby, drill”, indicating that his administration will push for more oil and gas production as well as consumption in the US. The biggest irritant in this direction is the Paris Agreement requirement that the United States cut down on its emissions. |
3. Currently, it appears that the world is almost sure to miss its 2030 emission reduction targets by a substantial margin. While the science says that global emissions need to be cut by at least 43 per cent by 2030 from 2019 levels to keep alive hopes of arresting global warming within the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold, however, recent assessments indicate that current actions and policies may only lead to a reduction of about 2 per cent.
1. The Paris Agreement is an international accord that was adopted by nearly every country in 2015 to address climate change and its adverse effects.
2. Its primary goal is to substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a bid to limit global warming in this century to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while pursuing the means to curb warming to 1.5 degrees.
| Greenhouse Gases |
| Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are those gases in the Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat. They allow sunlight to pass through the atmosphere but prevent the heat that sunlight brings from returning into space. Essentially, GHGs act like a blanket that envelopes our planet and insulates Earth from the cold of space. This process of maintaining a warmer temperature is called the greenhouse effect. The most notable GHGs are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide. These gases occur naturally and are a boon for the planet — in their absence, there wouldn’t be the greenhouse effect without which there wouldn’t be liquid water and any form of life. |
3. The agreement mentions the safer limit of 1.5 degrees based on a fact-finding report which found that breaching the threshold could lead to “some regions and vulnerable ecosystems” facing high risks, over an extended, decades-long period.
4. The treaty also requires all Parties (countries which have joined the agreement) to state every five years what they are doing to tackle climate change — what is known as their nationally determined contribution (NDC). Each successive NDC is meant to reflect an increasingly higher degree of ambition compared to the previous version, according to the website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
1. Article 28 of the Paris Agreement outlines the process and timeline for a country to withdraw from the treaty. It says, “[a]t any time after three years from the date on which this Agreement has entered into force (this happened in 2016) for a Party, that Party may withdraw from this Agreement by giving written notification to the Depositary”.
2. The Article also states, “[a]ny such withdrawal shall take effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the Depositary of the notification of withdrawal, or on such later date as may be specified in the notification of withdrawal.”
3. If a member state wants to withdraw from the treaty, it has to submit the notification of a withdrawal to the Office of Legal Affairs of the UN, based at UN Headquarters in New York.
4. Once the withdrawal notification has been received, it only becomes effective after one year (or later if the member state so says in the notification). Until the withdrawal comes into force, the member state remains in the Paris Agreement and has to fully participate in all activities under it, according to the UNFCCC website.
1. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the annual meeting of the members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international agreement established in 1992 that serves as the foundation for climate negotiations. Currently, there are 198 parties to the UNFCCC, which includes 197 countries and the European Union, representing almost universal membership.
Key Milestones from Previous COPs
📍COP3 in Kyoto, 1997: The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in this COP. It placed obligations on the set of rich and industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by assigned amounts. It did not last long as the rich and powerful countries were not happy with its provisions.
📍COP21 in Paris, 2015: It led to the landmark Paris Agreement — a legally binding international treaty to limit global temperatures to below 2 degree Celsius, and preferably below 1.5 degree Celsius.
📍COP26 in Glasgow, 2021: The Glasgow pact made a commitment to “phase down” the use of coal (this language was weakened from “phase out” late in the negotiations) and to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”. This was the first time that a UN climate agreement explicitly mentioned coal.
📍COP28 in Dubai, 2023: A Loss and Damage fund was officially launched in Dubai. The fund is meant to provide financial help to countries struck by climate disasters.
1. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
2.The main objectives of IPCC are to produce assessment reports, special reports, and methodology reports that assess scientific knowledge on climate change and provide potential response strategies.
(Sources: Trump to withdraw US from Paris Climate Agreement again, White House confirms, Trump takes US out of Paris Agreement again, Argentina considering leaving the Paris Agreement: What does it mean?)
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