Paris climate deal: US and China announce ratification

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

The US and China - together responsible for 40% of the world's carbon emissions - have now both ratified the Paris global climate agreement.
After arriving with other leaders of G20 nations for a summit in the city of Hangzhou, Mr Obama said: "History will judge today's effort as pivotal."
...
Members of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee adopted "the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement" on Saturday morning at the end of a week-long session.
...
The White House issued a statement on Saturday morning announcing the US ratification.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-37265541

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The first step: is for countries to sign the Agreement. Signing signals that country’s support for the Paris Agreement and its intention to align its domestic policies with the Agreement terms and start the process of formally joining the Agreement.

The second step: undertake domestic processes to formally join (or accept/approve/ratify) the Agreement and ‘consent to be bound’ by its terms and deposit the appropriate paperwork with the UN Secretary-General.

The third step: the next phase starts when a sufficient number of countries (55) covering a certain percentage of emissions (55%) have formally joined the Paris Agreement. When these two thresholds are met the Agreement will enter into force.

Once the conditions of the third step are met, entry into force will occur 30 days after the dual thresholds are achieved. Upon entry into force, the Agreement will become binding international law and countries that have formally joined will be subject to its provisions. Countries that have joined the Agreement can only pull out after a period of three years from the day it enters into force. After three years, a country that has joined the Agreement can choose to withdraw one year after submitting official notification of its intention. In effect, any country that has joined the agreement will be unable to legally exit the agreement for a period of four years.

http://climatenexus.org/about-us/paris-agreement/factsheet-entry-force-process-paris-agreement

The United States would deliver 19% of the avoided cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from 2016-2100.
China would deliver 31%, for a total of 51% together (note: they do not sum due to rounding).
...
Pledges to the Paris Agreement (INDCs): China has pledged to peak carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030,
decrease the carbon intensity of its economy, increase non-fossil energy sources, and increase forest stocks. The
United States has pledged to reduce emissions of all greenhouse gases 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.

Avoided emissions from the pledges: If the China and the United States meet their pledges, 1050 gigatons
(billion tons) of greenhouse gases would be kept out of the atmosphere.

Current per capita emissions: Today, average greenhouse gas emissions per person are 10 tons/year in China
and 22 tons/year in the United States.

https://www.climateinteractive.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/8-31-CI-US-China-Ratification-Fact-Sheet-Release.pdf

[karynnj]

1. This is a big deal because they need 55 states which total 55%

Of emissions. This means we will get there. Like making the agreement and signing it at the UN before it, this is a big step in making that real.

The US/China agreement made the Paris Climate pact a possibility, so it is fitting they did this step together. Of far less importance, it explains why Kerry spent two extra days in India and then joined Obama at the G20 in China.

[Native]

2. K&R

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. Did the Senate ratify this agreement? If not nothing is enforceable in US courts.

[karynnj]

8. They do not have to because it is built on a GHWB era agreement that was ratified

The brilliance of this climate pact, which was also its limitation, was it was designed to do as much as possible WITHOUT NEEDING SENATE RATIFICATION. The very first step of this process was the US/China pact in 2014.

The design, especially as defined by John Kerry, who was a key player here, is that these actions - worldwide - give a strong signal to the market that technology improvements that are needed to make these goals feasible will define the energy market in the future.

No one - including Obama and Kerry - dispute that a carbon tax or a cap and trade plan that both put costs on the production of carbon in the air would further accelerate this, but both of them can only be done by legislation. That was tried in the 2010 - 2011, but even when the numbers in Congress were better, they couldn't get the votes. They actually came closer than anyone thought possible by directly dealing with those areas that would be "losers" -- ie coal states. Yet 14 Democratic Senators from coal states wrote a letter that was pretty negative on any cap and trade plan.

That left Obama with doing what he could via the EPA. After Kerry, returning from his first trip to China where he met with people he knew from the many climate change summits he took part in, told Obama that China was open to working with the US, Obama approved working to get an agreement that (realistically) would not need ratification. Many Obama administration people were involved in one way or another and they created the pact that became a model. The China success made the interim Lima summit, which was prior to that considered unlikely to succeed a success. That led the way for Paris to result in a pact.

Note: This is NOT to claim that the US was a fantastic leader and we moved the world forward. The reality is that the US and/or the third world behemoths, like China and India, NOT being in an agreement meant it would fail. Many countries were far more willing to attack the problem in a stronger, more stringent way.

The reason there is an agreement is that the Obama administration had the genius to find a path that did not need the Congress and used principles that were spoken of at the Bali interim summit for defining the third world contributions. Then the leaders at the UN and countries like France etc agreed to use that model to get an agreement that could be unanimous in Paris and which will have over 55 countries, producing 55% of the emissions, which is the threshold for the agreement starting -- before Obama leaves office.

This is an international agreement that once started will be hard for a country to leave -- and it likely won't be in their interest.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. So what happens if a US company fails to comply with the new agreement?

My wager: Nothing

[karynnj]

11. The agreement does not DIRECTLY set new rules for companies

Companies DO have to follow EPA rules and they have enforcement.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

12. Maybe.

The EPA is an agency of the executive branch. The executive branch can't ratify new powers to itself via international agreements.

Imagine a president Palin using a UN-based agreement for greater religious tolerance to instruct the Department of Education to enforce standards for instruction in creationism.

[7962]

4. China will not follow anything forcing them to cut emissions nt

[yallerdawg]

5. They are not being forced.

They pledged to cut emissions.

“Where there’s a will and there’s a vision, and where countries like China and the United States are prepared to show leadership and to lead by example, it is possible for us to create a world that is more secure, more prosperous, and more free than the one that was left for us,” Obama added.

Xi said, “This is a key moment of us to reaffirm commitment. He called the agreement a “milestone” in the fight to curb climate change.

"A Chinese saying goes: ‘Only commitment and decision will lead to great achievement,'” the Chinese leader added.

“We need to take an innovative approach to climate change,” Xi said. “A new global vision is needed to sustain development.”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/obama-chinese-president-xi-ratify-climate-change-agreement/story?id=41842303

[karynnj]

10. They have their own reasons to want the emissions to become lower - including air quality

China's requirements, like that of other third world countries, set a year in the future when the emissions will peak. That means that they will not cut CURRENT emissions now. The reason for this is that they are a developing nation with far lower per person emissions. The idea is that, to expand their economy they should immediately jump to new technologies to meet their energy needs -- rather than following the same path as the developed world did. After they reach that peak, they commit to lowering the emissions. (Note that even restraining increases that are projected means that world wide emissions will be lower than the curve expected without these agreements.)

[MBS]

6. Thank you, Sec. Kerry and President Obama.

While Trump and congressional Republicans spin their regressive agenda and hateful lies, the Obama administration continues to move us forward.

[karynnj]

13. Kerry's comment on these actions

Today the United States and China demonstrated their continued, shared commitment to climate leadership when, on the margins of the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou, China, President Obama and President Xi deposited each country’s official instrument to formally join the Paris Agreement reached last December. Our two nations are the world’s largest economies – and its largest greenhouse gas emitters; as we have seen in the past, when we come together to take action on climate, it moves the needle in a way that no two other nations can accomplish. With both countries taking this important step forward, today the world comes significantly closer to bringing the Paris Agreement into force and honoring its commitment to future generations to address the dangerous impacts of climate change. And as someone who has spent nearly three decades focused on climate change, I was enormously proud to join President Obama in Hangzhou for this historic moment.

In recent years, the United States and China have made climate change cooperation a pillar of our bilateral relationship. Both nations have taken strong measures to build low-carbon, climate-resilient economies domestically and internationally – and much of that shared progress is thanks to the comprehensive cooperation and dialogue we have established.

But the world is still a long way from where we need to be. To prevent the worst impacts of climate change from happening, it is essential for the Paris Agreement to enter into force as quickly as possible. Both the United States and China strongly urge others to join the Agreement as soon as they are able, in hopes of meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s goal of bringing it into force this year. The urgency of this challenge is clear, and it is critical that global efforts move forward without delay.

The United States and China also committed today to working together and with other countries to achieve successful climate outcomes this year by adopting an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, and approving a global market-based measure for addressing carbon emissions from international aviation. Achieving these important actions this year will help the world reach the ambitious goals we set in Paris. And it would send a clear signal to all sectors that the global momentum to tackle climate change is only building.

http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/09/261567.htm

[MBS]

14. thanks for this.

Thoughtful statement as always.

[yallerdawg]

7. China parliament ratifies Paris climate change agreement

China's parliament on Saturday ratified the Paris agreement on climate change, the Xinhua state news agency said, which could help put the pact into force by as early as the end of the year.

The standing committee of China's National People's Congress voted to adopt "the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement" at the closing meeting of a week-long session, the news agency said.

The announcement came as leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies, the Group of 20 (G20), began to arrive in the Chinese city of Hangzhou for a summit on Sunday and Monday.

The United States, the second biggest emitter, is also set to ratify the agreement in a bid to put the deal into legal force before the end of the year.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-china-parliament-ratifies-paris-climate-change-agreement-2016-9