A Mythbusting Guide to the Paris Climate Agreement

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Climate Nexus has publishedย a helpful mythbusting page correcting the misinformation that is already being spread about the Paris Climate Agreement. It is rewritten here withย permission.

Myths and Facts about COP21, the Paris Climateย Agreement

MYTH: โ€œParis is not legally binding; it wonโ€™t change anything. China and India will still emit so much CO2 as to make all US reductionsย pointless.โ€

FACT:ย Paris does have legally binding aspects, and other nations are already takingย action.

  • The Paris Agreement is legally binding in that each countryโ€™s pledge represents a domestically binding policy. The US commitment is based off existing law. The Clean Power Plan derives its authority from the Clean Air Act and Supreme Courtย rulings.

  • The international pressure of the โ€œName and Shameโ€ aspect will provide ample incentive for countries to follow through, asย past agreements have demonstratedย the efficacy of this informal censure. With India and China joining the US, there is no longer any international support for furtherย inaction.

  • China alreadyย started carbon marketsย in 7 regions in 2013, and has plans to begin phasing in aย national carbon marketย in 2016. They recognize the health threat of coal burning, havingย banned new coal plantsย in key regions andย reduced coal productionย by nearly 3% over the last year. China is also theย largest investor in green energyย globally, asย seven of the top ten photovoltaic firmsย in the world are either Chinese firms or have their manufacturing facilities mainly located inย China.

  • India has committed to installing 100 gigawatts of solar by 2022. This more than quadruples the solar targetsย India set last fall, and will increase the countryโ€™s installed solar capacity by a factor of nearly forty. The US currently has an installed solar capacity of about 16ย gigawatts.

MYTH: โ€œParis will crash the economy and cost the US countlessย jobs.โ€

FACT:ย The clean energy economy is already on its way, as the world has grown GDP while emissions have leveled off, proving that carbon pollution and wealth are not as tied as criticsย suggest.

  • Preliminary data from theย International Energy Agencyย suggests that carbon emissions from the energy sector stalled in 2014, even as the economy continued to grow. In 2014, American energy-related carbon emissionsย grew by 0.7 percent, while the GDP grew by 2.4ย percent.

  • The IPCC has also estimated a veryย low annual GDP costย to climate action. The Global Commission on Economy and Climate found that if we focus heavily on low-carbon investments, it would addย less than 5%ย to the total costโ€”a cost that would be offset by the economic benefits of things like energy efficient buildings and cleaner air, without even taking into account the many future benefits of avoiding further climateย change.

  • Comparisons to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol fall flat, even according to Chuck Hagel, who co-sponsored the Congressional opposition to the Kyoto Treaty, on the grounds that not all nations will be held to reductions and it would harm the US economy. He hasย written in supportย of the Parisย agreement.

MYTH: โ€œEven if pledges are all fulfilled they wonโ€™t accomplishย much.โ€

FACT:ย This claim is based on a single analysis from an author, Bjorn Lomborg, whoseย bias is questionable. This claim was quickly ridiculed by the scientists whose work is referenced as a supportingย factor.

  • Already, countriesโ€™ commitments have bent the emissions curve significantly.ย Climate Action Trackerandย Climate Interactive, in separate reports, both found that the national pledges have reduced expected warming by almostย 1หšC.

  • If Paris pledges are ratcheted up successfully as a result of the agreementโ€™s design of five-year reassessments, it may be enough toย limit warming to less than 2หšC.ย ย 

  • The MIT group that Lomborg references to reinforce his findings that Paris pledges wonโ€™t do much has said his paper, the basis of this line of attack, โ€œappears to have no basis in fact.โ€

MYTH: โ€œRegulations arenโ€™t effective. We should simply focus on innovation, invention and the entrepreneurial spirit and adapt to any possible changes.โ€

FACT:ย Government policy drives innovation and adaptation alone will not be enough to avoid costlyย damages.

  • Eventually, the IPCC projects that some regions will begin to beย uninhabitable, and food production will be threatenedย above what adaptation can deal with.

  • For example,ย KPMG estimatesย that climate change could put the total profit of the global food industry at risk by 2030, and theย OECD predictsย over $45 trillion of assets could be at risk by 2050 due toย floods.

  • NASA spurred countless inventions and technological developments that grew the global economy. DARPA and ARPA-e have done the same. Government policy sends businesses a signal that there will be a market for types of products, in this case cleanย energy.

  • The focus on innovation and entrepreneurship is a talking pointย routinely usedย by the American Petroleum Institute to promoteย fracking.

MYTH: โ€œClimate change doesnโ€™t cause terrorism, was irrelevant to Syria, and we should address ISIS before worrying aboutย warming.โ€

FACT:ย According to the Department of Defense, climate change acts as a โ€œthreat multiplierโ€, helping create conditions that facilitate the rise of unrest and provide a space for terrorism to rise and posingan immediate risk to US nationalย security.

  • The Department of Defense has analyzed the climate threat andย wrote a climate change adaptation roadmapย for addressing the threat of climate change to national securityย efforts.

  • Peer-reviewed science has established a link between climate change and violence generally, and Egypt and Syria specifically.

  • Retired Navy Rear Admiral David Titley hasย written an op-edย summarizing the defense communityโ€™s position on climate change being a threat multiplier, creating conditions that are conducive to the rise of terrorism andย unrest.

Main image credit: UNFCCC

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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