MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. The Paris agreement on climate represents a breakthrough that would allow to set the program of actions in this sphere until 2050, Russian presidential advisor and special representative on climate Alexander Bedritsky told TASS on Tuesday.
"The adoption of the Paris agreement is a huge step forward," Berditsky said. "This agreement outlines the program of actions for 2020-2050 so far. The implementation of the agreement will take approximately this much," he added.
"Another breakthrough is the fact that the agreement combines the actions of all countries. Both industrialized and developing countries should take measures, make their contributions directed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in absolute or relative for developing countries volumes in order to reach the common goal," the presidential advisor said adding that "previous documents did not have that."
One of the main advantages of the document is strict control over reduction of emissions and contributions of different countries to this process, he continued. This partly compensates for the fact that contributions were not included in the text of the document. However, if they were outlined in the document, adjusting them would require additional ratification, Bedritsky said. "Such structure brought together developing and industrialized counties when a country’s contribution is set at the national level and presented by the time of ratifying the Paris agreement. Then contributions will be put on the register and controlled in the process of implementing the Paris agreement," he stressed.
He added that wording on financial issues was a compromise as well. Bedritsky also noted the article on losses and damages from negative climatic phenomena which further supports the work of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.
Bedritsky said he does not rule our amendments will be made to the document if necessary. "I think this will be done if necessary. I don’t think that we will need a new agreement, at least in the foreseeable future but amendments may be required in the next 5-20 years," he said. "The agreement is built in a way that periodic review of the global goal and periodic review of national contributions allows to see in the long-term perspective," he said.
On Saturday, 195 countries members of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference adopted an agreement designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperature increase "well below" 2C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C in relation to the average temperature of the pre-industrial era. Scientists believe that more considerable temperature rises may lead to irreversible consequences for the planet’s environment. The Paris Agreement is to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2020.