Int. and EU climate law

Question 1

What is the UNFCCC? And what is its objective and commitments?

Answer 1

• a framework convention on climate change
• objective: stabilize GHG consentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system and achieve a levele within a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner
• commitments: for the developed countries to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels before 2000 (art. 4.2)

Question 2

What are some of the key differences between the Kyoto protocol and the Paris agreement?

Answer 2

• the Kyoto protocol adopts a top-down approach, setting targets for the states to achieve (quantified emission reduction targets, strict timetable)
• the Paris agreement adopts a bottom-down approach, meaning that the states decide on what targets it sets
• the Kyoto protocol differenciates between developing and developed states and their contributions (developing countries had no quantified reducion commitments like the developed states, but both were gonna reduce GHG emissions ++)
• the Paris agreement differentiates between states by ‘self-differentiation’, meaning that their national targets (NDCs) is what differentiates between them

Question 3

Why is the 2009 Copehagen accord (COP15) imporant even though it is no int. treaty and has been made clear by the FCCC secretariat that it has no legal standing in the UN climate regime?

Answer 3

Because it is an important political agreement that has come out of climate negotiations. Marks a shift in how to regulate climate change by focusing on self-selected targets and actions and on transpareny provisions, essencially providing the template for the Paris agreement. It reflects a political consensus.

Question 4

Why are COP decisions important?

Answer 4

• not legally binding unless the treaty gives them that authority
• it enriches and expands the normative core of the UN climate regime by fleshing out treaty provisions
• they review the adequacy of existing obligations
• launches negotiations to adopt further agreements
• they have created an elaborate institutional architecture to supervise implementation and compliance
• the language agreed in COP decisions are often reproduced in later legal texts
• they are written in a manner that might provide normative force, even if they formally are non-binding (use of language such as ‘shall’)

Question 5

How does the european green deal relate to the Paris agreement? and what are the main goals?

Answer 5

• It is the EU’s way of reaching the commitments set out by the Paris agreement
• goals: climate-neutral by 2050 (making it the first climate-neutral continent), reducing GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compaired to 1990 levels

Question 6

How does the EU implement the target of 55% reduction of GHG emissions compaired to 1990 levels?

Answer 6

• EU ETS directive
• effort sharing regulation (member states’ emissions reduction targets)
• land use, land use change and forestry regulation (LULUCF)
• all of the above contribute with reducing emissions and increasing carbon removals and they have been recently updated