Five years of the Paris agreement: The past, present and future of the global climate treaty

The article presents an analysis of the main stages in the development of climate diplomacy on the eve of the Paris Agreement and the specifics of the negotiation process at the very summit in Paris in November-December 2015. The main provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement are described, its “strengths” and “weaknesses” are shown. The development of the negotiation process within the framework of the post-Paris climate policy at the Conference of the Parties in Marrakesh (2016), Bonn (2017), Katowice (2018) and Madrid (2019) was considered. The main decisions and conclusions of the Conference of the Parties on the further improvement of mechanisms for combating global climate change and adaptation to its consequences have been identified. An increasing tendency in many countries of the world towards the creation of a national carbon-neutral economy by 2050, their rejection of “dirty” technologies and the declaration of a deep ecological modernization of sectors of national economies are noted. The groupings of countries participating in the negotiation process under the UN climate change convention are analyzed. Shown are the vanguard countries of the negotiation process and the states blocking or “inhibiting” the negotiation process. The high dependence of the Russian economy on the extraction and export of fuel resources complicates the processes of environmental modernization. The country is dominated by a negative narrative about climate change. It sees the urgent ecological modernization of the country’s economy as a threat to the “key” sectors of the economy. Russia is one of the last countries in the world to ratify the Paris Agreement (October 2019) and to submit its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the UN in the fight against global climate change (November 2020). In the conclusion, generalizations are made and prospects for the further development of climate diplomacy are presented.

Paris Agreement, climate policy, conference of the parties, carbon neutrality, environmental transformation