France first G20 nation to ratify Paris Agreement

Implementation of the COP21 six months after the Paris agreement – Communiqué by the Ministers’ Council.

Paris, 15 June 2016

The Minister of the Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs, responsible for International Climate Relations, made a statement on COP21 and its implementation six months on.

Following the conclusion of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015, France’s action has focused on several key areas: the actual implementation of the agreement, European efforts, and the speeding-up of the [Global Climate] Action Agenda.

Ratification of Paris Agreement

1/ The French President this morning signed the act authorizing the ratification of the Paris Agreement. France, which had a duty to set an example, accelerated this procedure; both houses approved the agreement virtually unanimously, the National Assembly on 17 May and the Senate on 8 June.

Thanks to intensive efforts, the signature stage of the agreement was successfully completed in New York on 22 April, attended by 175 parties. The emphasis is now on ratification, which in many countries requires authorization by national parliaments. The Paris Agreement will come into force 30 days after 55 countries accounting for 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions have ratified it. This stage could be completed as early as 2017, with the encouraging announcements by China, the United States and India, among others. The ratification instrument will be formally deposited at the same time as those of all the other European Union (EU) member states, after they have completed their domestic procedures. France is working to ensure that the EU and its member states speed up their ratification timetables. W must ensure that the EU is indeed a party to the agreement when it comes into force. Following a meeting between the COP21 President and the European Commission President, the Commission therefore decided to speed up the EU’s procedure to ratify the agreement. It presented its draft decision on 10 June, with a view to adoption by the EU Council of Ministers following approval by the European Parliament, if possible before COP22 in Marrakesh.

Global Climate Action Agenda

2/ France is continuing its efforts to ensure that the momentum of the Action Agenda deployed in Le Bourget is maintained and speeded up. Initiatives being promoted at the highest level are making progress:

  • The International Solar Alliance, championed by Indian Prime Minister Modi, aims to bring together the countries of the intertropical zone to attract more than $1,000 billion of solar investment by 2030. In Delhi at the end of January, the French President took part in the ceremony to lay the foundation stone of the future building of the Alliance’s Interim Secretariat; in New York on 22 April, on the sidelines of the signature ceremony of the Paris Agreement, two programmes were launched in the framework of this initiative, one on financing projects and reducing capital costs, the other on decentralized solar applications;
  • Mission Innovation is making headway: 20 countries accounting for more than 75% of global investments in energy R&D, pledged to double their public investment in clean energy R&D in the next five years. The target for 2021 is nearly $30 billion a year, compared to $15 billion today.
  • The global Carbon Pricing [Leadership] Coalition has met twice, in Washington in April during the Annual Meetings of the World Bank [and IMF], and in Paris on 10 June. 12% of global emissions are covered by a price: the Coalition’s aim is to achieve a doubling of coverage to 25% by 2020 and a quadrupling by 2030. The fourth Business Dialogue meeting, held in Paris on 10 June and opened by the French President, provided an opportunity to gauge the scale of momentum for carbon pricing at global level;
  • Special emphasis is being put on the African Renewable Energy Initiative, which the COP21 presidency is promoting to African heads of state and government, the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank. It should soon take concrete shape, with a report by the [COP21] President proposing a first series of projects to improve access to electricity on that continent, which is severely affected by climate change but has not caused it;
  • The COP21 President is also preparing two reports on “women and climate” and on “security and climate”, with special recommendations on these issues;
  • The road map of the global coalition for sustainable building and construction has been introduced.

French domestic measures

3/ France pledges to meet its climate commitments. With the Energy Transition for Green Growth Act and the publication of the administrative order of 24 April 2016 on targets for developing renewable energy, France has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% between 1990 and 2030 and to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 75% between 1990 and 2050. France has thus become the first country to include so specifically in its national law the implementation of the Paris Agreement and Energy Europe commitments. The adoption of the implementing decrees is being speeded up, with 75% of implementing decrees finalized. The mobilization of non-state actors is also under way, with 400 positive-energy regions benefiting from the support of the Energy Transition Financing Fund to the tune of €500 million, generating work with a total value of three times as much. Moreover, France will be the first country to issue green bonds devoted to environmental investment projects, has introduced a requirement for green reporting for investors, and has announced the introduction of a minimum carbon price for electricity in its next budget. The Carbon Pricing Coalition and the Business Dialogue have speeded up the involvement of businesses and financial sectors.

Meetings in 2016

4/ There are many engagements between now and COP22 in Marrakesh from 7 to 17 November: the climate issue will be on the agenda of the G20 summit on 4 and 5 September in Hangzhou, China, as it was at the G7 summit in Ishe-Shima, Japan, on 26 and 27 May; a meeting on the Action Agenda will be held in Rabat on 23 and 24 June, the Business & Climate Summit in London on 28 and 29 June, the Petersburg [Climate] Dialogue in Berlin on 4 and 5 July on the invitation of Chancellor Merkel, a [Global] Conference on Health and Climate [Change] in Paris on 7 and 8 July with the World Health Organization, the Mediterranean Forum on 18 and 19 July in Tangier, a territorial summit in Nantes from 26 to 28 September, and a pre-COP meeting in Marrakesh on 17 and 18 October. All these meetings will provide opportunities to affirm the global goal to be more ambitious on reducing greenhouse gases, in order to keep the average temperature rise on the planet below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels, while continuing the action taken to limit the temperature rise to 1.5ºC./.

Last modified on 13/07/2016

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