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The Paris Agreement is the first legally binding universal global agreement on climate change adopted at the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) in December 2015. In the end, all parties recognized the need to „prevent, minimize and address losses and damages,“ but in particular any mention of compensation or liability is excluded. [11] The Convention also takes up the Warsaw International Loss and Damage Mechanism, an institution that will attempt to answer questions about how to classify, address and co-responsible losses. [56] In 1992, President George H.W. Bush joined 107 other heads of state at the Rio Earth Summit in Brazil to adopt a series of environmental agreements, including the UNFCCC framework, which is still in force today. The international treaty aims to prevent dangerous human intervention in the planet`s climate systems in the long term. The pact does not set limits on greenhouse gas emissions from individual countries and does not contain enforcement mechanisms, but establishes a framework for international negotiations on future agreements or protocols to set binding emissions targets. Participating countries meet annually at a Conference of the Parties (COP) to assess their progress and continue discussions on how best to combat climate change. To contribute to the goals of the agreement, countries presented comprehensive national climate change plans (national fixed contributions, NDC). These are not yet sufficient to meet the agreed temperature targets, but the agreement points to the way forward for further measures. The Kyoto Protocol, a pioneering environmental treaty adopted at COP3 in Japan in 1997, is the first time nations have agreed on country-by-country emission reduction targets. The protocol, which only came into force in 2005, set binding emission reduction targets only for industrialized countries, based on the fact that they are responsible for most of the world`s high greenhouse gas emissions. The United States first signed the agreement, but never ratified it; President George W.

Bush argued that the agreement would hurt the U.S. economy because developing countries such as China and India would not be included. In the absence of the participation of these three countries, the effectiveness of the treaty was limited, as its objectives covered only a small fraction of total global emissions. The agreement stated that it would only enter into force (and therefore fully effective) if 55 countries that produce at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions (according to a list drawn up in 2015) [65] ratify, accept, approve or adhere to the agreement. [66] [67] On April 1, 2016, the United States and China, which together account for nearly 40% of global emissions, issued a joint statement confirming that the two countries would sign the Paris climate agreement. [69] 175 contracting parties (174 states and the European Union) signed the agreement on the first day of its signing. [59] [70] On the same day, more than 20 countries announced plans to join the accession as soon as possible in 2016. The ratification by the European Union has achieved a sufficient number of contracting parties to enter into force on 4 November 2016. Under the Paris Agreement, each country must define, plan and report regularly on its contribution to the fight against global warming. [6] There is no mechanism for a country[7] to set an emission target for a specified date,[8] but any target should go beyond the previous targets. The United States formally withdrew from the agreement the day after the 2020 presidential election,[9] although President-elect Joe Biden said America would return to the agreement after his inauguration.

[10] At the 2015 Paris conference, at which the agreement was negotiated, developed countries reaffirmed a commitment to mobilize $100 billion a year for climate-financed energy by 2020 and agreed to continue mobilizing $100 billion a year until 2025. [48] The commitment refers to the existing plan of