Explain Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement is a landmark international treaty adopted in December 2015 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It aims to address climate change by committing countries to undertake ambitious efforts to limit global warming and strengthen resilience to climate impacts. Key components of the Paris Agreement include:

1. Temperature Goal: The central aim of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This goal is based on scientific evidence highlighting the severe impacts of exceeding these temperature thresholds on ecosystems, economies, and societies.

2. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): Each country is required to submit a nationally determined contribution (NDC) outlining its climate action plan, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate impacts, and enhancing climate resilience. NDCs are intended to be nationally determined, ambitious, and progressively enhanced over time, reflecting each country's circumstances and capabilities.

3. Global Stocktake: The Paris Agreement establishes a mechanism for conducting a global stocktake every five years to assess collective progress towards achieving the temperature goals and to enhance ambition in climate action. The global stocktake facilitates transparency, accountability, and peer review of countries' efforts, fostering greater ambition and cooperation in addressing climate change.

4. Adaptation and Loss and Damage: The Paris Agreement recognizes the importance of adaptation to climate impacts and the need to support vulnerable countries and communities in building resilience. It also acknowledges the concept of loss and damage associated with climate change impacts that exceed the capacity of countries to adapt, providing a framework for addressing irreversible losses and unavoidable damages.

5. Finance, Technology Transfer, and Capacity Building: The Paris Agreement includes provisions for enhancing financial support, technology transfer, and capacity-building assistance to developing countries to enable them to undertake climate action and transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathways. Developed countries are urged to mobilize climate finance of at least $100 billion annually by 2020 and to increase financial support thereafter.

6. Transparency and Accountability: The Paris Agreement establishes a robust framework for transparency, accountability, and reporting to track countries' progress in implementing their NDCs, reducing emissions, and enhancing climate resilience. Countries are required to regularly report on their emissions, adaptation efforts, financial contributions, and other relevant information, facilitating mutual trust and confidence-building among parties.

Overall, the Paris Agreement represents a historic and collective commitment by countries to combat climate change and pursue sustainable development. By fostering international cooperation, ambition, and solidarity, the Agreement provides a framework for accelerating the global transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future.