INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL

LAW
JOHANNESBURG WORLD SUMMIT 2002
The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg adopted a Political Declaration and
Implementation Plan which included provisions covering a set of activities and measures to be taken in order to
achieve development that takes into account respect for the environment.
In doing so, this Summit, which saw the participation of more than a hundred heads of state and government and tens
of thousands of government representatives and non-governmental organizations, resulted, after several days of
deliberations, decisions that related to water, energy, health, agriculture, biological diversity and other areas of
concern.
In the area of ​water, the Plan of Implementation encouraged partnerships between the public and private sectors
based on regulatory frameworks established by governments. With regard to energy, the need to diversify the energy
supply was highlighted, as well as the need to add renewable energy sources to the global energy supply.
In the area of ​health, the commitments made in the fight against HIV/AIDS were reaffirmed and the emphasis was
placed on the right of States to interpret the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in
order to promote universal access to medicines.
On agriculture, comprehensive negotiations on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture were envisaged and these
included market access and the reduction of export subsidies. With regard to biodiversity, the Plan of Implementation
called for the establishment of an international regime to ensure a fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising
from the use of genetic resources.
The text included provisions on the Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gases for those states which had
ratified it.
Those which had not yet done so were urged to ratify it without delay. The provisions also includes the creation of a
global solidarity fund for the eradication of poverty and the launch of ten-year programmes to support regional and
national initiatives aimed at accelerating the transition to viable production and consumption patterns.
BALI CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE 2007
The 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 3rd session of the Conference of the
Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol took place in Bali and was hosted by the
Government of Indonesia.
The Bali Climate Change Conference brought together more than 10,000 participants, including representatives of
over 180 countries together with observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations and the
media.
Governments adopted the Bali Road Map, a set of decisions that represented the various tracks that were seen as key
to reaching a global climate deal.
The Bali Road Map includes the Bali Action Plan, which launched a "new, comprehensive process to enable the full,
effective and sustained implementation of the Convention through long-term cooperative action, now, up to and
beyond 2012", with the aim of reaching an agreed outcome and adopting a decision at COP15 in Copenhagen.
Governments divided the plan into five main categories: shared vision, mitigation, adaptation, technology and
financing.
Other elements in the Bali Road Map included:
A decision on deforestation and forest management;
A decision on technology for developing countries;
The establishment of the Adaptation Fund Board
The review of the financial mechanism, going beyond the existing Global Environmental Facility.
Mitigation
Enhanced action on mitigation of climate change includes, inter alia:
Nationally appropriate mitigation commitments or actions by all developed countries.
Nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) by developing countries.
Cooperative sectorial approaches and sector-specific actions (CSAs).
Ways to strengthen the catalytic role of the convention.

Forests
The nations pledge "policy approaches and positive incentives" on issues relating to Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries; and
enhancement of forest carbon stock in developing countries This paragraph is referred to as “REDD-
plus”.

Adaptation
Participants agreed on enhanced co-operation to "support urgent implementation" of measures to
protect poorer countries against climate change, including National Adaptation Programmes of Action
(NAPAs).
Technology
In technology development and transfer, the nations will consider how to facilitate the transfer of clean and
renewable energy technologies from industrialised nations to the developing countries. This includes, inter alia:
Removal of obstacles to, and provision of financial and other incentives for, scaling up the development and
transfer of technology to developing country Parties in order to promote access to affordable environmentally sound
technologies (renewable energies, electric vehicles).
Ways to accelerate the deployment, diffussion and transfer of such technologies.
Cooperation on research and development of current, new and innovative technology, including win-win solutions.
The effectiveness of mechanism and tools for technology cooperation in specific sectors.
Finance
Provision of financial resources and investment includes:
Improved access to predictable and sustainable financial resources and the provision of new and additional
resources, including official and concessional funding for developing country Parties (DCP).
Positive incentives for DCP for national mitigation strategies and adaptation action.
Innovative means of funding for DCP that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change in
meeting the costs of adaptation.
Financial and technical support for capacity-building in the assessment of costs of adaptation in developing
countries, to aid in determining their financial needs.
•THE COPENHAGEN ACCORD 2009
The 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 5th session of the
Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol took place
in Copenhagen and was hosted by the Government of Denmark.
The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference raised climate change policy to the highest political level.
Close to 115 world leaders attended the high-level segment, making it one of the largest gatherings of
world leaders ever outside UN headquarters in New York. More than 40,000 people, representing
governments, nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, faith-based
organizations, media and UN agencies applied for accreditation.
It significantly advanced the negotiations on the infrastructure needed for effective global climate change
cooperation, including improvements to the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.
Significant progress was made in narrowing down options and clarifying choices needed to be made on
key issues later on in the negotiations.
It produced the Copenhagen Accord, which expressed clear a political intent to constrain carbon and
respond to climate change, in both the short and long term.
The Copenhagen Accord contained several key elements on which there was strong convergence of the
views of governments.
This included the long-term goal of limiting the maximum global average temperature increase to no
more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, subject to a review in 2015.
There was, however, no agreement on how to do this in practical terms. It also included a reference to
consider limiting the temperature increase to below 1.5 degrees - a key demand made by vulnerable
developing countries.
Other central elements included:
Developed countries' promised to fund actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the
inevitable effects of climate change in developing countries.
Developed countries promised to provide US$30 billion for the period 2010-2012, and to mobilize long-
term finance of a further US$100 billion a year by 2020 from a variety of sources.
Agreement on the measurement, reporting and verification of developing country actions, including a
reference to "international consultation and analysis", which had yet to be defined.
The establishment of four new bodies: a mechanism on REDD-plus, a High-Level Panel under the COP
to study implementation of financial provisions, the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund, and a Technology
Mechanism.
•PARIS AGREEMENT
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty signed by almost all countries in the world at
COP21 in Paris in 2015.
Its aims are to keep the rise in the global average temperature to ‘well below’ 2 degrees
above pre-industrial levels, ideally 1.5 degrees; strengthen the ability to adapt to climate
change and build resilience; and align all finance flows with ‘a pathway towards low
greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development’.
The Paris Agreement has a ‘bottom-up’ approach where countries themselves decide by how
much they will reduce their emissions by a certain year. They communicate these targets to the
UNFCCC in the form of ‘nationally determined contributions’, or ‘NDCs’.
The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the
first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious
efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
Implementation of the Paris Agreement requires economic and social transformation, based on
the best available science. The Paris Agreement works on a 5- year cycle of increasingly
ambitious climate action carried out by countries. By 2020, countries submit their plans for
climate action known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
In their NDCs, countries communicate actions they will take to reduce their Greenhouse Gas
emissions in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. Countries also communicate in the
NDCs actions they will take to build resilience to adapt to the impacts of rising temperatures.
The Paris Agreement provides a framework for financial, technical and capacity building
support to those countries who need it.
Finance
The Paris Agreement reaffirms that developed countries should take the lead in providing
financial assistance to countries that are less endowed and more vulnerable, while for the first
time also encouraging voluntary contributions by other Parties. Climate finance is needed for
mitigation, because large-scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions.
Climate finance is equally important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are
needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate.
Technology
The Paris Agreement speaks of the vision of fully realizing technology development and
transfer for both improving resilience to climate change and reducing GHG emissions. It
establishes a technology framework to provide overarching guidance to the well-functioning
Technology Mechanism. The mechanism is accelerating technology development and transfer
through it’s policy and implementation arms.
Capacity-Building
Not all developing countries have sufficient capacities to deal with many of the challenges brought by
climate change. As a result, the Paris Agreement places great emphasis on climate-related capacity-
building for developing countries and requests all developed countries to enhance support for capacity-
building actions in developing countries.

USA
On June 1, 2017, United States President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all
participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, contending that the agreement
would "undermine" the U.S. economy, and put the U.S. "at a permanent disadvantage.“
In accordance with Article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a country cannot give notice of withdrawal from
the agreement within the first three years of its start date in the relevant country, which was on November
4, 2016, in the case of the United States. The White House later clarified that the U.S. will abide by the
four-year exit process.[5] On November 4, 2019, the administration gave a formal notice of intention to
withdraw, which takes 12 months to take effect. Until the withdrawal took effect, the United States was
obligated to maintain its commitments under the Agreement, such as the requirement to continue
reporting its emissions to the United Nations.The withdrawal took effect on November 4, 2020, one day
after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Following Trump's announcement, the governors of several U.S. states (nearly 24 States) formed the U.S.
Climate Alliance to continue to advance the objectives of the Paris Agreement at the state level despite
the federal withdrawal.
Trump's withdrawal from the Paris agreement might have impacted other countries also as the financial
aid to the Green Climate fund, would also have reduced. It could also have had impact on the overall
success for reduction in GHG.
Thankfully after Biden won the presidential election he signed an executive order to rejoin the agreement
on January 20, 2021. The country formally rejoined on February 19, 2021.
THANK YOU

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