International climate policy

Mitigating man-made climate change is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. To avoid the worst consequences of global warming, profound changes in all countries and economic sectors are needed. With the signing of the Paris Agreement, all States will be taking on this task for the first time. In a first step, they jointly declared in December 2015 that global warming should be kept to below two degrees and preferably to below 1.5 degrees. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should peak as quickly as possible in the next few years and then decrease significantly. At the same time, industrialized countries have acknowledged their responsibility with regard to climate change and have committed to supporting developing countries on the path towards climate protection.

The Paris Agreement will enter into force as soon as a minimum of 55 states responsible for at least 55% of global emissions have signed it. In an additional process, all states regularly submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in which they specify their reductions of GHG emissions. The NDCs provided to date are not sufficient to keep the increase in global temperature significantly under the 2 degree target. At the same time, the Parties have committed in the Paris Agreement to embarking on a path of greater global climate protection efforts.