In December, 195 countries convened in Paris for the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. To the surprise and delight of most of the participants, the conference ended in consensus among all the participants1 on a document, the Paris Agreement, that will be opened for signature on April 22, 2016. President Barack Obama has indicated that the United States will sign it. (Co-author Michael Gerrard participated in the conference.)
The Paris Agreement contains specific requirements for monitoring, reporting and verification; those were authorized when the Senate ratified the original climate treaty in 1992.2 Beyond that, however, it is mostly aspirational. It has many declarations of intent and ambition, and it establishes procedures for future actions to achieve those ambitions. It does not on its face have binding, country-specific commitments to reduce emissions or provide financing. This was no accident; the U.S. insisted that such commitments be left out, lest the agreement require Senate ratification, which would be impossible in the current political climate.
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