ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW POLICY.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW POLICY
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW POLICY
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ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW POLICY
Q1:
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is
considered as an international multination agreement concerning the matter of climate
change. The convention was created in the year 1992 in Rio de Janeiro as a part of the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The enforcement of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change took place in the year 1994. The
convention has been adopted by more than 195 countries in the world. The main purpose
behind the construction of this convention is to mitigate the adverse impact of human conduct
on the environment and also prevent the hazard created by human interference with the
climate (Hoad 2015). This study aims to discuss the factors and conditions that influenced the
development of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
While adopting the Framework Convention, the ratifying parties agreed not only to
avert the dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate structure but also to set a
stabilized standard for greenhouse gas emission in the environment which is necessary to
ensure a healthy climate condition. Article 2 of the UNFCCC states that environmental
standards under this convention must be set at such level so that it ensures that quality of food
production must be not at a risk (Gao, Gao and Zhang 2017). This standard is also necessary
to allow economic development to proceed ecologically. The framework does not impose any
restriction on greenhouse emission for individual countries and does not comprise of any
enforcement mechanism (Jordan et al. 2015). However, the framework provides guidelines
regarding the subject of how international protocol and agreements can be negotiated to
achieve the objective of the UN climate change convention (Ford et al. 2016). The
convention relishes broad legality due to the fact of its universal acceptance among 197
countries until the year 2015 (Scott 2015). The member countries of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change often meet to discuss various problems
prevailing in the environment and thrives to adopt necessary steps to reduce its negative
impact from the environment. Parties after signing the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development treaty conducted a conference to discuss the approach to
achieve the purpose of creating the treaty. After the 1st conference parties were not satisfied
with the standard level of emission that has been set out in the convention. This has headed to
the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, which set out a standard level for greenhouse gas emission
(Tomlinson, 2016). This protocol imposes an obligation especially on the developed

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW POLICY
countries which abound to follow the rules of International Law regarding the same, to have a
check on the greenhouse gas emission.
In the year 2015, 196 countries of the UNFCCC gathered together during a
conference held in Paris from 30th November to 12th of December of the same year and
entered into an agreement name ‘Paris Agreement’ with the uniform consent of all the
member countries (Savaresi 2016). The purpose of the agreement was to lower down the
global warming level from two degrees Celsius and maintain it within 1.5 degrees Celsius
(Rogelj et al. 2016). The parties to the agreement have decided to put their best efforts to limit
the upswing of global warming standard to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Paris Agreement came
into force on 4th November 2016 (Obergassel et al. 2015).
All the parties who have been a signatory to the UN Framework for Climate Changed
Convention have undertaken a pledge to give the regular report of Greenhouse Gas emissions
on their country. They further have undertaken a commitment to take necessary steps to
mitigate the negative impact due to the excessive emission of the same in the environment.
Article 3 of the convention imposes the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC). Therefore, it can be said that CBDR-
RC is a joint task for each country but an individual country should have to contribute more
and have a proper check on the Greenhouse Gas emission in their own country. The
convention further distinguishes its members into two groups. The first is developed
countries and the second is developing countries. The developed countries are listed under
Annex I. The convention does not impose any mandatory or binding level for Greenhouse
Gas emission for these countries. However, these countries undertook certain commitments
like regular reporting about the amount of emission, adopting adequate measures to eliminate
active environmental risk factors (Almer and Winkler 2017). However, developing countries
were specially instructed to reduce the Greenhouse gas emission level to follow the
guidelines mentioned in the polluter-pays principle regarding the same. The rule regarding
such a check on emission by the developing countries has been mentioned in the Kyoto
Protocol (Grunewald and Martinez-Zarzoso 2016). After calculating the respected
contribution of each developed of developing countries in the continuously changing climate,
the convention took up the principles of equity and progressive development while preparing
the guiding principles that every signatory country is bound to follow as per their ranking in
the list.