Navigating the Paris Rulebook

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, marked a historic breakthrough in the global response to climate change. It set long-term goals to guide all nations: limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C and pursue efforts to hold warming to 1.5 degrees C; strengthen resilience and countries’ ability to adapt to climate impacts; and direct financial investment into low-emissions and climate-resilient development.

Under the Agreement, countries agreed to submit national climate plans — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — and update them every five years. These plans outline commitments to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.To guide implementation, countries developed the “Paris Rulebook” — a set of guidelines covering transparency, reporting and accountability. First adopted at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in 2018, the Rulebook has since evolved as countries refine rules for carbon markets, reporting and climate finance. WRI’s guide to the Paris Rulebook helps governments, negotiators and stakeholders understand its elements and key decisions.

Plan, implement, review: How the Paris Agreement works

To reach the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals, climate action must become more ambitious over time. To sustain this rising ambition, the Agreement establishes a continuous improvement cycle through which countries plan and communicate their NDCs, implement their plans, and review individual and collective progress to inform future planning and their next NDCs. This process provides the foundation for countries to fully bring the Paris Agreement to life.

This plan-implement-review cycle supports the Agreement’s commitment to comprehensively take stock of collective progress every five years through the global stocktake — a key element of the process that is sometimes referred to as the Agreement’s ambition mechanism (learn more on the global stocktake page). The global stocktake informs countries as they consider how to strengthen their NDCs in light of national circumstances. Each round of NDCs is meant to reflect a country’s most ambitious plans and be stronger than the last. The Rulebook plays an essential role in providing detailed guidance for carrying out the plan-implement-review cycle of the Agreement.

Plan: The Rulebook addresses key questions about how countries should prepare their NDCs, such as what information should be included in a clear and transparent manner so that other countries and stakeholders can understand how each country plans to account for its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Whether all NDCs should cover the same time frame has also been considered in the negotiations, though the issue  remains unresolved.

Countries relying on international support can plan climate action more effectively when they have clarity on the future financial support they will receive from developed countries. The Rulebook therefore specifies the types of information that developed countries and other countries providing support are expected to communicate, as well as how this information will be considered and discussed. It also offers guidance on what types of information participating countries should share concerning adaptation priorities, plans and actions.

Implement: Since NDCs represent national action for each country individually, countries implement their NDCs in a variety of ways consistent with their domestic strategies. Countries are required to report regularly and transparently on their climate actions and support, including whether they have met or are on track to meet the goals in their NDCs. The Rulebook’s guidelines outline the specific details and information that countries will have to report. For countries that choose to voluntarily cooperate to reduce emissions, the negotiations have considered, but not yet agreed on, guidance to ensure that emissions reductions are not counted twice.

Review: To inform further planning, countries must review their efforts, individually and collectively. The Rulebook guides this process by outlining how reviews are conducted. Reviews of individual countries’ progress seeks to verify the quality of the data provided and assess progress toward national targets, while the  global stocktake, as noted above, assesses collective progress toward the Agreement’s long-term goals and identifies the remaining gaps, challenges and opportunities for enhanced action. The Agreement also set up an expert committee focused on facilitating implementation and promoting compliance to help countries address barriers to implementation and further climate action.