By Areej Zaher* -- For the recent fifth weeks, France has gone through inevitable unrest due to the last government statements regarding the sudden rise of the diesel prices. The public's objection for this laws has escalated, and the yellow anger has marked these outbursts.
However, we have to uproot this unrest hidden reasons and go back to what might have to flare it. Hence, if we think through and put the pieces together, the first thing that could come to our mind is the Paris Agreement that took place on 12th of December 2015. Several aspects of the design of the Paris agreement have positioned it to become effective for limiting global greenhouse gas pollution and improving resilience to the effects of climate change.
All the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change or "UNFCCC" including major emerging economies such as China and India have to commit to this agreement regarding emission reduction. In addition, the national climate goals that countries submit to be associated with the agreement will have political rather than legal force.
For the Paris Agreement, however, many developed countries, including the United States, as well as parties in the High Ambition Coalition, supported the concept of differentiation but rejected bifurcation. This resulted from being under big corporations control and their economic interests, which means submitting to such climate agreement would mean the perishing of these empires.
The Agreement reaffirms that developed countries must continue to provide public funding for developing mitigate and adapt to climate change. Some developed countries have committed to making a contribution to the Green climate fund. Besides, developed countries agreed to mobilize $100 billion a year in climate finance by the year of 2020, and to continue at this level until 2025. Hence, climate finance will increase steadily over time, but the question is how this would be achieved? Prior to 2025, there was a collective agreement to set a new, higher goal for finance, though it remains unclear for this goal to be decided, the period it will cover, or the countries in charge of achieving it. Therefore, and in recognition of concerns towards accumulating the $100 billion, developed countries argued to come to a concrete roadmap.
The Paris Agreement make significant progress, with a remaining of plenty of work to increase the scale and predictability of finance required for reaching the agreement's aims.
Hence, France attempt to pass a fuel tax claimed to be for environmental purposes to raise awareness about climate change and the potential greenhouse gas hazards. Unfortunately, this causes a massive eruption across the country, marked by "the yellow vests" movement. These protests have escalated and winded into a movement against the government's economic policies and education reform, which put President Emmanuel Macron in the middle of a crisis.
Despite the Prime minister's statement of not backing down, apparently, the yellow anger has posted a real threat to the government, especially after these protests were countered violently by police, leading to a big number of causalities and a few death cases. As a result, the government found that scrapping all planned fuel taxes will be for its own good.
If we put this unrest into perspective, we will realize the relation between this unrest and the Paris Agreement. This might raise some eyebrows and questions as well, what is the hidden reason for this unrest, and was it planned by France? Was France going underdeveloped countries and world corporation's pressure? Is that the reason for the government to back down and scrap fuel tax?
On the environmental point of view, France Agreement would be a failure and it would be hard to be carried out in the near future.
*Areej Zaher is a Syrian journalist based in Latakia.
