A Brief Guide to the Paris Agreement and ‘Rulebook’

The Paris Agreement enshrines global goals, national commitments and multilateral processes aimed at progressively strengthening the global effort against climate change. The agreement, adopted in 2015 under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has since been ratified by more than 190 countries. In 2018, parties adopted detailed rules and procedures for implementing the agreement, known informally as the Paris “rulebook.” This brief outlines the broad contours of the agreement and rulebook, focusing on the provisions related to governance, mitigation, transparency, finance, the periodic global stocktake, and implementation and compliance. It includes a timeline of key milestones in the agreement’s implementation over the coming years.