Paris Agreement

General Information

The Paris Agreement is basically based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and aims to regulate the climate change regime after 2020, the expiration date of the Kyoto Protocol.

The Paris Agreement aims to strengthen the global socio-economic resilience against the threat of climate change in the post-2020 period. The long-term goal of the Paris Agreement is to keep the global temperature rise as low as 2°C (1.5°C if possible) compared to the pre-industrial era. This target requires a gradual reduction in the use of fossil fuels (oil, coal) and a focus on renewable energy.

The Paris Agreement continues international cooperation against climate change in a different way. Based on the argument that the structure established by the Paris Agreement and the annexes system of the contract, and especially the Kyoto Protocol, is not effective because it causes important parties such as the USA and China, which have the highest share in global emissions, to stay out of the reduction action, with the framework created new cooperation is expected to involve all parties in the reduction action.

The most important feature of the Agreement, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, is the participation of developed and developing countries in the mitigation action with the Nationally Determined Contribution / NDC. To ensure the participation of all countries with an emission reduction or limitation targets, a new architecture different from the Protocol was established. The Agreement, which uses the methods defined as bottom-up and top-down together in determining the responsibilities to be assumed by the parties, exhibits a hybrid structure. The national contributions of the participating countries, which consist of non-binding voluntary targets that they set themselves within the framework of their national conditions, have given the Agreement a bottom-up character. Monitoring the implementation of the agreement with a reporting and review system applicable to all parties constitutes the top-down nature of the new regime. Therefore, the Agreement is based on the so-called "pledge-and-review" approach with these features.

One of the main areas where the new regime architecture established with the Paris Agreement differs from the Convention and Protocol is its departure from the classification made with the Convention annexes. The agreement does not make direct reference to the annexes in the provisions regarding the individual and collective responsibilities of the parties, but only uses the distinction between developed and developing countries. Acknowledging the diversity exhibited by the group of developing countries within itself, the Agreement has created an embedded differentiation that provides flexibility to the least developed countries in meeting the requirements by making differentiation among developing countries according to their vulnerabilities, special situations, and capacities in operational regulations such as transparency, implementation, and compliance mechanism. However, it is not possible to say that the Agreement completely abolishes the function of the annexes to the Agreement. Although there is no direct reference to the annexes, the distinction made between developed and developing countries, especially in the regulation of core duties such as mitigation and financing, implicitly follows the annexes system. For example, it does not mention the annexes of Article 9 stating that developed countries will continue to provide financial support to developing countries as in the Convention; however, it is clear that this provision is a continuation of the financial support obligation of Annex-II countries regulated in Article 4 of the Convention. Again, in Article 4, where reduction is regulated, a distinction is made between the types of mitigation actions of developed and developing countries, with the distinction made as emission reduction "target" and "efforts".

Türkiye’s Accession to the Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement, which was adopted on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016, is an important milestone in the fight against global climate change. Türkiye accepted the Paris Agreement in 2015, provided that the demand for access to financial and technical supports in the new climate regime is met, and signed the agreement on April 22, 2016, verbally stating that it is a DEVELOPING COUNTRY.

Our President Mr. Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN announced that we will ratify the Paris Agreement at the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations on September 21, 2021. In his speech after the Cabinet Meeting held on September 27, 2021, our Honorable President announced our 2053 net zero emissions target. Following these explanations, the Law on Approval of the Paris Agreement, which we signed in 2016, was published in the Official Gazette dated 7 October 2021 and numbered 31621. In addition, our Certificate of Ratification and National Statement regarding the Paris Agreement were deposited on 11 October 2021 with the United Nations Secretary-General, who is the Depositary of the Agreement. The 30-day depository period of the Agreement expired on 10 November and Türkiye became a party to the Paris Agreement on this date.

                                                                                                                Table: Articles of the Paris Agreement