I.INTRODUCTION
The most international problem is might be climate change of all time of the world because the greenhouse effect which leads to climate change affects the whole of the world’s alive environment and every creature inhabiting. So, climate change was defined as a ‘common concern of mankind’ by United Nation General Assembly. Due to the reason is being an environmental problem for all nations, there is a lot of activity which was led by the states are the one of the key actors to hinder this problem in the international arena. These activities were called as treaties or protocols which are deduced between states in written form, sometimes legally binding sometimes not, and conducted by international law, finally, adopted by states in national level. However, a framework treaty is mostly chosen for making law for these kind of problems, because, framework treaty generate the basic arrangements or procedures for the adoption of protocol which consists of detailed obligations to the parties in order to get the aim of treaties. One of the most advantages of framework treaty is to give a litheness by allowing legal amendment or other changes related to political, scientific or economic developments. In the field of climate change, it is rational because climate change policies mainly depend on the scientific data.
The problem of global climate change was firstly identified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in global and they set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (hereinafter IPCC) in 1988. After that time, states have tried to respond to climate change under The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter UNFCCC) several times. The most recent response is Paris Agreement also called 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP21 (hereinafter Paris Agreement). This paper will examine the effect of Paris Agreement on climate change in the world in respect of the case Urgenda v Netherlands.
II.EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The factors of the climate change are natural causes which are volcanic activity, glaciations, solar output, and the Earth's orbit around the Sun and human causes which are the burning of fossil fuels and the transformation of land for forestry and agriculture. These factors’ effects are being researched by a large number of organisations in the world and the IPCC is one of them. Five assessment reports were published by the IPCC so far and these report prepared by different working groups. The reports were divided up three-part as follows the physical science basis of climate change; impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability; and mitigation of climate change. The work of the IPCC is carried out by 1,800 scientists over 20 years, and it is possible to say that this work the most extensive and long-time scientific study so far. In the fifth assessment report shows the evidence of climate change on the part of physical science basis of climate change very briefly as follows;
Observed changes: Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen.
Changes in atmosphere: Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. The period from 1983 to 2012 was very likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 800 years in the Northern Hemisphere, where such assessment is possible and likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years.
Changes in ocean: On a global scale, the ocean warming is largest near the surface, and the upper 75 m warmed by 0.11 [0.09 to 0.13] °C per decade over the period 1971 to 2010.
Changes in cryosphere: Over the last two decades, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass. Glaciers have continued to shrink almost worldwide. Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover has continued to decrease in extent. There is high confidence that there are strong regional differences in the trend in Antarctic sea ice extent, with a very likely increase in total extent.
Changes in sea level: Over the period 1901–2010, global mean sea level rose by 0.19 [0.17 to 0.21] m. The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the mean rate during the previous two millennia.
Beyond this scientific evidence confessed by the IPCC, there is various kind of evidence of climate change such as the rise in tropical storm numbers, hurricane numbers or power dissipation in the Atlantic.
III. BACKGROUND OF 21ST CONFERENCE OF PARTIES
The Kyoto Protocol has a significant role as a legally binding global response to climate change was held as 3rdCOP in December 1997. The protocol aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emission in the world with thirty-seven developed countries and the European Union. However, the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitter countries, the United States and China, were never adopted the Kyoto Protocol and besides, other some of the world's largest emitters are developing countries who have no binding commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, brought a failure. According to one critic, ‘If cutting global carbon emissions was [the Kyoto Protocol's] aim, the UN scheme has failed.’ Because of the implementation failure of Kyoto Protocol and after the diplomatic failure of COP15 in Copenhagen, Paris Agreement has become more important.
The characteristic of Paris Agreement was given by Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) as ‘protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties’ in 2011 at COP17. Firstly, the agreement will be ‘under the Convention’ which means it will coincide with the principles and objectives of the UNFCCC, for instance, the main goal of the UNFCCC is to hold warming to below 2 degrees and Paris Agreement will follow this principle. Secondly, the Paris Agreement will be ‘applicable to all’, so, wide participation is essential because of the nature of climate change and it consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities under the UNFCCC and related to this, parties submitted their commitments before the Paris Agreement was held in order to support the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Thirdly, the Paris Agreement will be a ‘multilateral, rules based regime, grounded in a protocol, an other legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force’ which means the Paris Agreement’s form will be a treaty.
IV. 21ST CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES
UNFCCC is a global pioneer for reducing these emissions and hazards from anthropogenic climate change. The main target of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to mitigate greenhouse gas emission and emission from land-use and forestry. The aim of UNFCCC was also stated as ‘stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’ by United Nations in 1992. To achieve this target, twenty-one conference were held by UNFCCC so far and the latest one is 21st Conference which was held in Paris in 2015 with 195 countries. Besides these states, the role of the non-governmental organisations can be seen in Paris Agreement, such that there are various groups like the Group of 77 and China, the Umbrella Group, the Environmental Integrity Group, the Like Minded Developing Countries and the Alliance of Small Island States. Non-state actors have been playing a central role which is significant for developing of international environmental law. Non-governmental organisations can have been the only actor of international environmental law who stay away from the politics which is one of the obstacles of international environmental law.
After two weeks from the beginning, 195 countries involved to reach the significant deal on climate change agreed in Paris and Laurent Fabius, foreign minister and president of Paris Agreement, announced that ‘I hear no objection in the room, I declare the Paris climate agreement adopted.’ The agreement was defined as an ‘ambitious and balanced agreement’ by the European Commission and as a ‘historic moment’ by President Obama. It is possible to categories milestone conclusions of Paris Agreement as follows;
Mitigation: Reducing emissions fast enough to achieve the temperature goal.
A transparency system and global stock-take: accounting for climate action.
Adaptation: Strengthening ability of countries to deal with climate impacts.
Loss and damage: Strengthening ability to recover from climate impacts.
Support: Including finance, for nations to build clean, resilient futures.
States agreed on 29 Articles which comprise landmark conclusions and some of the articles of Paris Agreement have certain significant outcomes which need to be highlighted. One of the important points need to be highlighted is Article 2. According to this article, parties agreed on to hold the increase in global average temperature ‘well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels’ and pursue efforts to ‘limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C’. Holding the increase below 2°C is remarkable because according to the IPCC reports, there will be dangerous effects in the world such as an increase in the number of extreme climate events, if global average temperature more than 2°C. The Alliance of Small Island States has insisted parties to implement the solutions required to meet the below 1.5°C temperature goal, the effect of non-governmental organisations can be clearly seen in this article. On the contrary with the Article 2, Professor James Hansen of Columbia University et al. addressed that the dangerous effects of climate change appear with the rise of 1°C, so, the aim of keeping under 2°C temperature rise is a dangerously inadequate target.
According to Article 4 ‘parties aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible’ and the target to hold under 2°C serves this aim as well because according to scientists to hold the temperature under 2°C which means release lower global greenhouse gas emission by 40 to 70 percent compared with 2010 by mid-century and to near-zero by the end of this century. The point of ‘as soon as possible’ needs to be remarked here and using this is thoughtful because to reach this aim might take longer according to the state’s developing level.