The Paris Agreement: Kick-Off for True Global Climate Cooperation

On 12 December 2015, the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the "Paris Agreement". By doing so, the world community has agreed on a collective cooperative path to fight human-induced climate change. After 25 years of UN climate diplomacy, the world's governments have for the first time in history negotiated a treaty which envisages climate action by all nations. It is an encouraging sign that this has been possible in spite of a weakly-developed international system and amidst the current threats of war, terror, social injustice and a teetering global financial system.

A group of researchers from the Wuppertal Institute observed COP 21 and developed a preliminary assessment of the results (see download). The Wuppertal Institute will publish a comprehensive analysis of the conference in the new year.