While the COP28 negotiations have not yet led, Tuesday morning, to a consensus on the reduction of fossil fuels, the Paris agreement, signed eight years ago, although very often cited as an example, is not not respected.
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Negotiations at COP 28 in Dubai continued late into the night on Monday, December 11. And nothing is certain about obtaining a text of agreement on Tuesday as provided for in the agenda. Eight years to the day after the signing of the Paris agreement, the climate emergency is still struggling to gain consensus.
However, the Paris agreement has continued to be cited by the president of this COP, Sultan Al-Jaber, as the shepherd’s star, the course not to lose sight of. This course is to maintain the rise in global temperature below 1.5 or 2 degrees by the end of the century, compared to pre-industrial levels. This would require reducing the demand for all fossil fuels by a quarter in the next 10 years. This is why the draft agreement presented on Monday, which is not very restrictive, on reducing the use of oil, gas and coal is considered very insufficient.
A legal basis
The 1.5 degree target is included in the Paris Agreement for several reasons. At this level of global warming, scientists have identified that there is a risk of reaching levels of irreversible damage to glaciers, forests and oceans. Many vulnerable countries will also find themselves financially deprived to cope with the damage caused by climate change. With the Paris agreement, they have a legal basis to request financial compensation from rich countries, the most carbon emitting countries.
The problem is that the Paris agreement is not binding. Today we are heading towards warming of 2.5 to 3 degrees by the end of the century. This is why new guidelines, clear and shared by all, are expected in Dubai. The signatories nevertheless committed to transmitting their carbon footprint to the United Nations, and their road map for reducing it. These are certainly just promises, but failing to keep them can harm a country’s reputation on the international stage. The UN secretary on climate change, Simon Stiell, recalled this on Monday in these climate negotiations, “if some want to win by making others losehe saidIt’s a recipe for collective failure.”
