Blog Posts: international climate policy

This week's Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco aims to highlight bright spots and spur momentum on international climate action. And, to be sure, bright spots can be seen—you just need to know where to look for them.

There is growing recognition of the strong connections between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change, which were adopted only three months apart in 2015. However, after nearly three years of implementation, the question of how countries can advance these two agendas jointly at the national level ways remains.

As of 2018, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate actions embedded in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement are still largely implemented under separate tracks. Policymakers report...

Most cities lack the emissions data needed to create climate action plans. National governments are often flush with it. So why aren't they working together?

President Trump announced one year ago that he would pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, other countries and U.S. states, cities and businesses have moved forward with climate action.

From phasing out coal to banning oil drilling, several nations stepped up their climate action this year. A new timeline tracks climate announcements.

Negotiators made progress in a number of areas at the latest UN climate talks, which wrapped on May 10, but an overburdened agenda left them with a lot more ground to cover before the big climate summit (COP24) in Poland this December.

Long-term strategies aren't required by the Paris Agreement, but every country would benefit from creating one. Here, perspectives on how to craft a long-term strategy, from three dozen experts.

Under the Paris Agreement, Parties have agreed to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Mid-century, long-term low-GHG emission development strategies (" long-term strategies") underpin the transformative potential of the Paris Agreement. By catalyzing a process by which decision-makers across key sectors of the economy re-think policy, development, and technology pathways, long-term strategies offer the opportunity to...

With the launch of the 2018 Talanoa Dialogue in January, countries are now embarking on the first global assessment of efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement on climate change. These "global stocktakes" are a core part of the Agreement's five-year cycles to ramp up ambition and action.

Toxic air pollution. Plastic-filled oceans. Sucking carbon from the skies. These are just a few of the stories that will shape 2018's legacy.