Abstract
Climate change is a global issue requiring urgent action to be taken at the global level. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol were developed in the 1990s to deal with the problem but meager progress has been observed up to now.
Eighteen years after adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, The 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (Paris Climate Conference) made history with what has been termed the Paris Agreement. This essay briefly outlines the history of climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC and goes on to analyze some of the major issues at stake during the negotiation process for the post-2020 international institution. The paper then describes main elements within the Paris Agreement, analyzes reasons for the success of the agreement and summarizes challenges for the future negotiations.
In general, failure of the Copenhagen Conference (COP15) in 2009 had a strong impact on the overall mindset of the negotiators and there were warnings that the failures of COP15 must not be repeated at COP21. This learning process, together with economic incentives to reduce GHG emissions, became major stimuli for countries to reach the recent agreement.
