Analyzing the Nature of States Obligations in the Paris agreement 2015 on climate change

One of the most important international instruments to deal with climate change is the Paris Agreement 2015. For over three decades, states have begun long-term talks and negotiations on climate change, which is always on the international agenda. One reason for not concluding an international instrument is that states are not willing to adopt binding commitments on mitigating Green House Gas emission. The failed experience of the Kyoto Protocol 1997 reflects this approach. The piece analyzes the nature of states obligations in the Paris agreement on climate change. This research is based on a legal inductive analysis method. According to this method, the Paris Agreement and some related legal instruments on climate change have been analyzed and assessed. This article while identifies various defining elements of legal character of the Paris Agreement, illustrates that even though the Paris Agreement is an “International Treaty within the meaning of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties” which contains a mix of hard, soft and non-obligations is an important step forward to address climate change, but still has legal and normative inefficiencies.