What is the Paris Agreement. What is the Paris Climate Agreement and why is it important? Taxation of motor and energy fuels

It was adopted on December 12, 2015 following the 21st Conference of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris.

The agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, including through:

— retention of global growth average temperature well below 2°C and efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, which would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change;

— increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and promoting low-emission development greenhouse gases, in a manner that does not jeopardize food production;

— aligning financial flows towards low-emission and climate-resilient development.

The Paris Agreement specifies that specific measures to combat climate change must be aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with their development and implementation entirely the responsibility of national governments.

Agreement cements and formalizes pivot to new, low-carbon model economic development based on the gradual abandonment of traditional technologies for the extraction, processing and use of fossil resources (primarily hydrocarbons) in favor of “green” technologies.

By 2020, states must revise their national strategies in the field of CO2 emissions towards reduction.

The commitments of countries participating in the Paris Agreement are planned to be renewed every five years, starting in 2022.

The Paris Agreement, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, does not provide for a quota mechanism. The Paris Agreement does not include sanctions for countries that fail to meet their national contributions. The agreement simply approves the creation of an incentive mechanism that should reward states and economic entities for their successful reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Financial support will be provided to developing countries to implement programs to curb global warming. Combined public and private funding for developing countries should reach $100 billion by 2020.

Denying reality is never good. Whether we like it or not, whether it is true or not, there is a very definite consensus in the scientific world - global warming, which we are seeing right now, is associated with an increase in the share carbon dioxide V earth's atmosphere, which is a direct result of human activity.

In the current situation, it is important to understand what is really happening and how Russia should behave in this case. “Climate games” have long been a tool that is used for a wide variety of purposes. It is extremely important for our country to once again do not become a victim, but try to act in the current conditions to your advantage.

First, let's plunge into the past and find out how this story developed. It all started back in 1972 with the UN Declaration on the Problems surrounding a person environments where there is, for example, the following:

“We have come to a point in history when we must regulate our activities around the world, taking greater care with regard to the consequences of those activities on environment».

Strictly speaking, the Declaration is a very general document, the essence of which is that the international community is aware of the problem of adverse environmental changes and establishes certain principles.

Based on the Declaration, the thematic UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro (). More than 180 states, including Russia, put their signatures on the agreement. Our country ratified the UNFCCC in 1994.

The convention in article 4 states general principles the actions of countries to resist negative climate change, as well as the obligations they undertake. Among them are the development and implementation of national and regional programs to minimize negative impact on climate, large-scale cooperation in this industry at the interstate level, disclosure of information about the real state of affairs in the field of combating global warming.

The Convention, however, for all its timeliness, has only one, but very serious, drawback: it does not contain a word about responsibility. However, this often happens with international acts: countries fix “in all respects positive” norms, but do not establish responsibility for their implementation. And then the game begins: someone performs, someone only pretends to perform, and someone applies the provisions only in the part that is beneficial to him. The classic situation from the fable “Swan, Pike and Cancer” often arises. This is what happened with the Framework Convention.

By the way, Russia quite successfully implemented the norms set out in this international document. The fact is that in the 90s, production in our country was, to put it mildly, far from in the best shape, so emissions into the atmosphere were quite modest, especially compared to other countries.

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, became a new milestone in the history of combating adverse climate change. It introduced a very interesting innovation - a market mechanism for trading quotas for greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, a country that did not choose the established limit for the year could sell quotas to other countries. However, the Kyoto Protocol again did not fix responsibility, and countries such as China and India did not undertake any obligations at all. Russia, again, diligently implemented the Kyoto Protocol and, according to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, even exceeded it.

In general, the shortcomings of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol were visible from the very beginning; the idea of ​​a new, more serious document was in the air for quite a long time. This is how the Paris Agreement came into being.

If we analyze legal history climate agreements, we will see that there is an obvious tendency towards specification. If the UN Declaration on the Problems of the Human Environment, in fact, only raises the question of the need to take care of nature, then in the UNFCCC the first outlines of an answer to the question: “How can we take care of it?” are already beginning to emerge. The Kyoto Protocol, in turn, introduces quite interesting regulatory mechanisms.

Now it’s the turn of the Paris Agreement. What is its essence?

Essentially, the Paris Agreement was supposed to be a response to the current situation in which plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the global community are simply failing. There is an attempt by the UN to at least somehow solve the problem in conditions where there are no enforcement mechanisms, and there is no desire on the part of countries to impose very specific and tangible responsibility on themselves.

The Paris Agreement is a document in which countries committed to “keeping global average temperature rise well below 2°C” and declared a goal of “limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C.” Translating from diplomatic into Russian, we can say that countries want to achieve an increase in average temperature in the 21st century no higher than 2°C and will try very hard to reach the level of 1.5°C, which, most likely, they will not succeed. In addition, states decided to reach peak CO 2 emissions “as soon as possible.” Previous national plans to reduce CO 2 emissions were recognized as untenable, but now the participating countries have agreed that they will formulate new “more ambitious” plans and revise them every 5 years.

As we can see, the Paris Agreement does not provide for any quotas, nor does it provide for any liability measures. Moreover, the provisions of the agreement do not impose any obligations on the countries at all. The famous climatologist James Hansen, after reading the text of the document, could not stand it and called it.

However, the point here, it seems, is not at all a matter of ill will. It’s just that in the current situation the UN does not have any mechanisms for real influence on the situation. The organization really wants to, but at the same time cannot. Failure awaited the FCCC; the very interesting decisions of the Kyoto Protocol in practice did not lead to the expected results. In this situation, the UN has not come up with anything smarter than setting a certain benchmark for the twenty-first century and making “green growth” as prestigious as possible.

In fact, now everything is in the hands of the world community, which seems to be aware of the need to do something about the climate and at the same time does not really want to. Whether countries will be able to voluntarily achieve the given indicators is a big question.

Nevertheless, we are primarily interested in Russia. Should we be eager to put the Paris Agreement into practice? Let's be honest: Russia followed the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol not only because it had good will, but also because it was not very burdensome for us.

Today, as the country stands on the cusp of new industrialization, the Paris Agreement may pose a challenge. We know one thing for sure: the implementation of international agreements on climate protection has not made our country “green and beautiful” in the eyes of the world community, especially the Western one. So for a bonus in the form of a positive image on the international stage with dominance Western media there is no hope. At least for now.

However, one cannot help but notice the obvious trend towards a “green economy”, which has already formed in the world and which was consolidated in the Paris Agreement. In addition, although the Paris Agreement does not provide for sanctions for non-compliance, there are a huge number of non-governmental organizations that will try to loudly remind us of the norms of the document. Naturally, various non-governmental institutions can become a tool in the competition against Russia. It is important not to give them obvious reasons for this and to avoid reputational risks.

Our country is in a very interesting situation: on the one hand, it must develop technologically and at the same time remember about the environment, on the other hand, it is important not to fall into environmental populism and even a race with Western countries, when “beautiful” political decisions undermine the real economy.

It is important to keep abreast of the international environmental and economic agenda. How should we approach the Paris Agreement? First of all, rationally, not forgetting about main goal— the environmental and economic well-being of Russia itself.

The Paris climate agreement has entered into force. Russia signed the document but did not ratify it. Why?

The Paris Climate Agreement has entered into force. It replaced the Kyoto Protocol: countries agreed to reduce emissions into the atmosphere in order to avoid environmental disaster in the future. The document was ratified by 96 countries, Russia was not among them. Moscow has its own opinion on this matter.

UN Climate Secretary Patricia Espinosa called accepted document"historical". According to her, this is the basis for “another world.” The planet is literally heating up, and countries are on track to keep warming to within 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels. If it is higher, then an inevitable disaster will happen sooner or later. The Paris Agreement will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2020. The difference between the documents is significant. In fact, all states undertake obligations to limit emissions into the atmosphere: from the United States to Angola, the latter, by the way, has signed and already ratified the document. Another question is that countries are not limited in numbers and are free to reduce emissions at their own discretion.

Andrey Kiselev Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences“If you take a closer look at its provision, it doesn’t do much and obliges the countries that signed it. That is, everyone chooses their own strategy, despite the fact that everyone seems to agree. U different countries completely different ideas about what and how they will do, but the worst thing is that according to current assessments (this is recognized by the Paris Agreement itself), the measures that are declared and must be implemented are absolutely insufficient to achieve the goals that spelled out in the Paris Agreement. Unless we regard this as a zero approximation, it should be followed by other actions. More efficient."

Russia has signed the Paris Agreement, but has not yet ratified it. First, the country needs to pass appropriate laws. However, back in the summer, business called on Vladimir Putin not to approve the document. The RSPP stated that the implementation of the provisions will negatively affect the pace economic growth. The head of the Union, Alexander Shokhin, noted that Russia has already exceeded its obligation to bring emissions into the atmosphere below the 1990 level. Coordinator of the Climate and Energy Program of the Foundation wildlife Alexey Kokorin believes that Moscow will ratify the document, but at a more appropriate moment for this.

Alexey Kokorin coordinator of the Climate and Energy program at the Wildlife Foundation“The development of global energy, which is reflected in the Paris Agreement, leads to the fact that a number of industries are very associated with large greenhouse gas emissions and, of course, are under pressure. First of all, coal energy, our plans to export coal, in particular, to the Asian market (probably, we should assume that they should already be cancelled). This has a very serious impact on Russia and does not depend on our ratification. Ratification itself is a political moment, and when it comes right moment, I think it will be done."

Meanwhile, from November 1, all Russian gas stations must be equipped with chargers for electric cars. This is how the authorities support owners of environmentally friendly transport. However, now only 722 electric vehicles are registered in Russia.

On November 4, the Paris Climate Agreement comes into force. Its initiators expect it to be more successful than the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. But to achieve the goals of the agreement, investment in the environment will have to triple

UN Headquarters (Photo: Reuters/Pixstream)

What is the essence of the Paris Agreement?

The Paris Climate Agreement was adopted during the climate conference in Paris in December 2015 and signed by most countries in the world in April 2016. It (.pdf) will replace the previous document regulating global emissions harmful substances, Kyoto Protocol 1997. New document starting from 2020, it will regulate greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides).

At the same time, the text of the agreement does not contain either absolute or relative data on the volume of emissions that a particular country will have to reduce: everything will be voluntary, but all countries that have signed the agreement will have to do this, regardless of the level of economic development. The document only states the general global goal— until the end of the 21st century, keep the increase in global average temperature below two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, and also make efforts to limit the temperature increase to one and a half degrees.

As part of the agreement developed countries agreed to allocate $100 billion annually to developing economies to implement environmental policies. To date, the document has been ratified by 92 of the 197 countries that signed the agreement, including China, the USA, France, Germany and others.

How realistic are the goals of the agreement?

The goals for limiting global warming set out in the Paris Agreement look very ambitious and even difficult to achieve. Nowadays, the readiness of states for a given amount of emissions reduction is reflected in the so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) - documents that almost all countries of the world submit to the UN. They are not legally binding. According to a study (.pdf) by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology There is a 95% chance that temperatures will rise by 3.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century if current emissions reduction commitments are met. According to the most optimistic estimates (IEA, Climate Action Tracker), the temperature increase will be 2.7 degrees. A report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) notes that to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions will need to be reduced by an additional 12-14 gigatons of CO2 equivalent.

To turn the situation around, the Paris Agreement provides for a review of national contributions to reduce harmful emissions every five years, starting in 2020. At the same time, the document does not clearly define the mechanisms for monitoring emission reductions (it only notes that the implementation of the provisions of the agreement must be carried out with respect to national sovereignty and not be punitive).

Achieving the Paris Agreement targets will also require a significant increase in investment in clean technologies. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in order to achieve temperature growth targets, by 2030 it will be necessary to increase investment in renewable energy by more than three times (from the current level of $270 billion to $900 billion per year).

What did the previous agreement achieve?

The main difference between the previous global document on climate regulation, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement is that developed economies assumed clear legal obligations to reduce emissions of harmful substances. The legally binding nature of the agreement ultimately led to the fact that the US Senate (the second country in the world in terms of emissions) simply refused to ratify it. At the same time, the Kyoto Protocol did not impose legal obligations on countries such as India and China.

The fact that China and the US largest countries on greenhouse gas emissions, actually found themselves outside the scope of the agreement, in 2011, Canada was forced to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol (at the same time, this did not result in any penalties for Ottawa). Calculations by the Global Carbon Project show that the protocol did not bring any positive consequences in reducing harmful emissions. Against this background, the achievements of Russia, on which he imposed legal obligations, look significant: by 2012, Russia had reduced the volume of harmful emissions by 31.8% from the 1990 level, with obligations only not to exceed this level.

Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement provides for reductions in emissions by all its participants, regardless of the level of economic development.

How much serious problem global warming?

In November 2015, the UK Met Office reported that pre-industrial levels were exceeding average annual temperature is approaching a record high of one degree Celsius. According to NASA, the increase was 0.8 degrees. The pre-industrial level is taken to be the average temperature in 1850-1900.

In 2013, following a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (under the auspices of the UN), a report was released in which confidence that anthropogenic factors were the main reasons for the rise in temperature since 1951 was estimated at 95%.

An increase in average annual temperatures of more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels could lead, in particular, to drought and adversely affect grain yields. Other negative effects associated with global warming include rising sea levels and longer seasons. forest fires, more destructive hurricanes, melting ice, etc.

If the scientific community is confident that the cause global change climate change is human activity, close to absolute, the same cannot be said about politicians. In particular, the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is an opponent of the theory of the anthropogenic nature of global warming. In May, he said he would “cancel” US participation in the Paris Agreement if he wins the election.

What will Russia do?

Russia, which as of 2014 was the fourth largest emitter of harmful substances, is not yet among the states that have ratified the agreement. The document was signed in Moscow six months ago, in April 2016, by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin. ​At the same time, he stated that Russia’s contribution to the Paris Agreement would be to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 70% of 1990 levels by 2030.

As Advisor to the Russian President Alexander Bedritsky stated to TASS in June, ratification by the Russian side may occur no earlier than 2019-2020. He also noted that Russian authorities have not yet begun to develop a national low-carbon development strategy, indicating that work on the document will take at least two years. “Our business, especially those who export products, understand that it will not be long before it will be impossible to compete in the market with products that have a larger carbon footprint than others,” said the presidential adviser.

However, the attitude Russian business to the Paris Agreement turned out to be controversial. Back in December 2015, the main owner of Rusal, Oleg Deripaska, in an interview Financial Times called the Paris Agreement “nonsense” and proposed introducing a global tax on hydrocarbons - from $15 per ton of CO2 equivalent.

For possible negative consequences Such measures were indicated in June 2016 by the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin. In his letter to Vladimir Putin, he noted that the Paris Agreement in Russia will create “significant risks for the fuel and energy complex of the Russian Federation, which is of systemic importance for the economy.” Shokhin, in particular, noted that the implementation of the proposal for a “hydrocarbon tax” at a rate of $15 per ton of CO2 equivalent would cost Russian economy up to $100 billion per year, while damage from climate change will amount to 60 billion rubles. per year. According to the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, obligations under the Paris Agreement can be fulfilled using existing instruments (nuclear and renewable energy) and without resorting to additional regulation of the fuel and energy sector.

It has been ratified by more than 80 states, including the USA, China, India and most EU countries.

Russia intends to ratify the agreement no earlier than 2019-2020. The relevant documentation is currently being prepared.

The agreement was adopted in December last year at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This treaty will replace the Kyoto Protocol adopted in 1997.

Parties to the Paris Climate Agreement commit to:

— adopt national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and revise them in order to cause less harm to the environment every five years;

— achieve a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and thereby keep global warming on the planet within 1.5-2 degrees Celsius relative to the average temperature of the pre-industrial era;

— by 2020, develop national strategies for the transition to “green” technologies and a carbon-free economy;

— annually allocated to Green climate fund$100 billion to help underdeveloped countries. After 2025, this amount should be revised upward “taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries.”

Why is this Agreement needed?

Modern scientists are concerned about changes in the Earth's global temperature. In 2015, for the first time in history, they recorded an increase in the average temperature of the planet by more than 1° C compared to the 19th century. A year earlier, the World Meteorological Organization reported a record high concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the past 30 years.

From this, climatologists concluded that it is human activity - the burning of oil, gas and coal - that leads to greenhouse effect, which causes an increase in average temperature. Experts estimate that to keep temperature increases to 2°C, countries will need to halve global emissions from 1990 levels by 2050, and by end of XXI century - reduce them to zero. If states do not begin to seriously address the problem of environmental protection, by 2100 the temperature on the planet may rise by 3.7-4.8 ° C, which will lead to the melting of glaciers, the formation of typhoons and other serious disruptions to the ecosystem.

How far have you been able to reduce carbon emissions?

According to the international analytical agency PwC, since 2000, Russia has on average reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 3.6% per year, the UK by 3.3%, France by 2.7%, and the USA by 2.3%. The global average reduction in carbon emissions over the past 15 years was 1.3%. However, these efforts are not enough. To prevent irreversible climate change, annual reductions in carbon dioxide emissions must be at least 6.3% until 2100.