Paris Agreement

The treaty under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted at COP21 on 12 December 2015, which entered into force on 4 November 2016. It aims to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, alongside goals on adaptation and on making finance flows consistent with low-emission, climate-resilient development.

Its architecture is bottom-up: each Party sets its own nationally determined contribution, and common rules on transparency, a five-yearly Global Stocktake and the expectation that each new contribution progresses beyond the last are meant to raise ambition over time.

Why it matters in the room

Almost every negotiating file today is an implementation question under the Paris Agreement. Knowing which provisions create obligations of conduct and which only set collective goals is the starting point for reading any position.