The Paris Agreement is an international agreement that was adopted by almost every country in the world. It was set up as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was established in 1992. The Paris Agreement was the culmination of several years of negotiations and was adopted by the parties to the UNFCCC on December 12, 2015, at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris, France.
The Paris Agreement was set up to address the urgent need to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change, and to address the loss and damage associated with it.
The Paris Agreement was negotiated by all the parties to the UNFCCC, with contributions from many stakeholders, including civil society, the private sector, and international organizations. The agreement was the result of a long process of consultations, negotiations, and scientific assessments, and was designed to be a flexible, dynamic, and transparent framework for action on climate change.
The process leading up to the adoption of the Paris Agreement began in 2011, when the COP in Durban, South Africa, launched a process to develop a new agreement that would apply to all countries, and be in effect by 2020. This process was called the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP).
The ADP met several times over the next four years, and in 2013, the COP in Warsaw, Poland, decided to launch a new round of negotiations under the ADP, with the aim of adopting a new agreement at the COP in Paris in 2015.
The negotiations leading up to the Paris Agreement were lengthy and complex, with countries holding differing views on many issues, including the level of ambition required, the differentiation between developed and developing countries, and the financing and technology transfer needed to support developing countries in their efforts to address climate change.
Despite these challenges, the Paris Agreement was adopted by consensus, with all parties agreeing to its terms. Since then, the agreement has been signed by 197 parties to the UNFCCC, and 189 parties have ratified it, making it one of the most widely supported international agreements in history.
In conclusion, the Paris Agreement was set up as part of the UNFCCC, through a lengthy and complex process of negotiations involving all parties and stakeholders. It is a flexible, dynamic, and transparent framework for action on climate change, designed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.