A technology company expands its sustainable offerings and develops a flight booking application that allows customers to offset a flight’s carbon emissions. An analyst at the company researches climate agreements to inform the structure of the offsetting program.
How does the analyst describe the achievements and shortcomings of the agreements?
COP3 (Kyoto) resulted in differentiated national responsibilities wherein developing countries were not subject to emissions reduction obligations, which disincentivized Annex 1 countries to take action. This statement accurately describes the structure and impact of the Kyoto Protocol. The other options contain inaccuracies: COP21 (Paris) does not legally obligate countries to submit unchanged NDCs; countries are expected to update and increase their ambitions over time. COP15 (Copenhagen) did not create the IPCC; the IPCC was established in 1988. COP1 (Berlin) did not set the specific goal of limiting global warming to below 2°C.
A: the Paris Agreement makes use of the powerful tools of inclusion and peer pres-sure. Everyone must submit an NDC, and countries ramp up ambitions when others do. B: The fact that, in light of the notion of “common but dif-ferentiated responsibilities,” developing countries were not subject to any kind of emissions reduction obligations (and indeed many had skyrocketing rates of emissions growth during this time) made even Annex 1 countries less com-mitted.
NDCs have changed.