The Paris Climate Change Agreement and After

In a turn towards pragmatism the Paris Climate Change Agreement, concluded in December 2015, adopted a markedly different architecture for global climate governance. It remains to be seen if pragmatism produces effectiveness. However, in lieu of the approach under the Kyoto Protocol, where binding emission reduction targets for Annex 1 Parties (broadly, the industrialized countries) to the Protocol were arrived at by a formula, the Paris Agreement records Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) arrived at independently by the Parties and submitted to the United Nations.