The Paris Agreement starts a new era in global climate policy. The agreement includes a landmark target of limiting global warming to well below 2°C degrees. Since the initial contributions of the Parties do not fulfill that target, additional ways and mechanisms to increase climate change mitigation ambition are required. Increased cooperation and decreased costs of mitigation that result from enhanced policy can help to achieve the current contributions and also increase the ambition of future targets.
The objective of this report is to bridge the realities of the UNFCCC negotiations and theoretical academic understanding of increasing the climate change mitigation ambition. Especially we focus on the fields of environmental economics and international environmental agreements.
We have analyzed the possibilities which the Paris Agreement opens up for increasing the ambition of climate change mitigation in the form of (1) cyclical improvements, (2) market mechanisms, (3) technology transfer and information sharing, and (4) low-carbon investments and finance to increase the ambition of climate mitigation.
We find that the implementation of the Paris Agreement requires increased multilevel cooperation between Parties. Also, the Parties’ climate change mitigation targets and actions should be clearly formulated and comparable. In order for the global ambition enhancements to be measurable, a trustworthy review process is necessary. In addition, new international market and non-market mechanisms are needed.
We also find that for their role to be optimal, UNFCCC’s key means of implementation require strengthening. The Green Climate Fund could play an active role in enhancing the maturity and market growth of low-carbon investment instruments. The Climate Technology Centre and Network could help to advance the Parties’ technology cooperation as well as technology transfer to developing countries.
The Paris Agreement itself is a significant step towards more ambitious global climate policy. However, the implementation of the agreement will define how well its objectives are met. Upcoming negotiations can help to shape future climate policy design towards a positive cycle of increasing climate change mitigation ambition