Why Obama's Fine Words Have Fallen Too Late

Of the various COP21 headlines that have hit the media during the first few days of the conference, one of the most celebrated was President Obama's concession that "some" parts of the text should "have legal force". With the US a longstanding opponent of any binding commitments under the UNFCCC given the domestic legal position, the President's remarks have been widely heralded as a watershed.

Perhaps too much so. Although undoubtedly welcome, his words do not change a stark reality - none of the options being negotiated at COP21 relating to the new Agreement's enforceability provide for it, or any part of it, to have real legal force. The title of Article 11 itself - "facilitating implementation and compliance" is indicative of the "softly softly" approaches to be taken thereunder and reflects the absence of "bindingness" in any of the earlier provisions. The different options in the text can be summarised as follows:

An implementation and/or compliance committee (or mechanism) to facilitate/incentivise/promote/enforce Parties' commitments. A differentiated, two-tier system whereby developed country parties are subject to...