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1^ Conference of the Parties, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Adoption of the Paris Agreement, 21^st sess, UN Doc FCCC/CP/2015/L.9 (12 December 2015) (‘Paris Decision’) Annex (‘Paris Agreement’). Collectively, the Paris Agreement and the Paris Decision are referred to as the ‘Paris Outcome’. Australia ratified the Paris Agreement on 9 November 2016.

2^ Australian Government, Department of Environment and Energy, Australia’s 2030 Climate Change Target (2015) < http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/publications/factsheet-australias-2030-climate-change-target>.

3^ Frank Jotzo, ‘Australia’s 2030 Climate Target Puts us in the Race, but at the Back’ The Conversation, (online) 12 August 2015 .

4^ Alan Finkel et al, Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market – Preliminary Report (December 2016) 57 (Appendix B), outlining the terms of reference set by the Energy Council of the COAG. Other key reviews commissioned by the government are considered in detail in Part V below.

5^ For a detailed consideration of the legal form of the Paris Agreement, see generally, Sebastian Oberthür and Ralph Bodle, ‘Legal Form and Nature of the Paris Outcome’ (2016) 6 Climate Law 40.

6^ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, opened for signature 9 May 1992, 1771 UNTS 107 (entered into force 21 March 1994) art 2 (‘UNFCCC’).

7^ Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, open for signature 16 March 1998, 2303 UNTS A-30822 (entered into force 16 February 2005) (‘Kyoto Protocol’).

8^ Note that developed and developing countries are referred to as Annex I and non-Annex I parties, respectively. See Meinhard Doelle, ‘The Paris Agreement: Historic Breakthrough or High Stakes Experiment?’ (2016) 6 Climate Law 1-20 for a comparative assessment of the approach under the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol; see also Jacqueline Peel, ‘Climate Law’ (Technical Paper No 5, The Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental Law, April 2017) 6-7.

9^ Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 8th sess, UN Doc FCCC/CP/2012/13/Add.1 (held in Doha on 8 December 2012)

Decision 1/CMP.8 (‘Doha Amendment’).

10^ See Peel, above n 8, 7; see Doelle, above n 8, 3.

11^ Paris Agreement art 2(1)(a).

12^ Paris Agreement art 4(1).

13^ Paris Agreement arts 4(2)-(3).

14^ Paris Agreement art 4(3).

15^ Subsequent Conference of the Parties held in Marrakech in 2016 (‘COP22’) and Bonn in 2017 (‘COP23’) have focused on the important process of turning the overarching framework of the Paris Agreement into detailed implementation rules and roadmaps. Unfortunately, COP23 was overshadowed by the US decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement under the Trump Administration. See generally, Tim Baines, ‘What Happened at COP22’ Norton Rose Fulbright (online), August 2017 ; see also Jocelyn Timperley, ‘COP23: Key Outcomes Agreed at the UN Climate Talks in Bonn’ Carbon Brief (online), 19 November 2017 . See also Han-Cheng Dai, Hai-Bin Zhang and Wen-Tao Wang, ‘The Impacts of US Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on the Carbon Emission Space and Mitigation Cost of China, EU and Japan under the Constraints of the Global Carbon Emission Space’ (2017) 8 Advances in Climate Change Research 226, which considers the negative macro-economic impact of the US withdrawal on China, EU and Japan if the 2°C is to be achieved.

16^ See M J Mace, ‘Mitigation Commitments under the Paris Agreement and the Way Forward’ (2016) 6 Climate Law 21, 26-7 for a detailed discussion on the negotiations underpinning articles 2 and 4 of the Paris Agreement.

17^ United Nations Environmental Program (‘UNEP’), The Emissions Gap Report 2016 – A UNEP Synthesis Report (Report, UNEP, 2016) 13-15 (‘2016 Emissions Gap Report’); this report considers a number of trajectories from current policy, unconditional INDCs to conditional NDCs, with various standard of errors. In summary, the 2°C pathway (assuming 66% probability of the threshold being met prior to 2100), is estimated to be 41.8 GtCO2-e per year and the 1.5°C degree pathway (assuming 50% probability of threshold being met prior to 2100) is estimated at 38.8 GtCO2-e per year.

18^ Ibid at 15; See also Paris Decision paras 17, 21.

19^ Paris Agreement arts 4(9), 4(11).

20^ 2016 Emissions Gap Report, above n 17, 16; Indeed the Climate Action Tracker is less optimistic as it estimates that, for such a scenario, the temperature increase is likely to be in the order of 3.6°C by 2100 based on current policies, Climate Action Tracker, Climate Action Tracker (31 October 2017)