ABSTRACT
The successful conclusion of the Paris climate negotiations marked a major achievement for multilateral diplomacy. Of the four strategic multilateral negotiations undertaken since the 1970s – Law of the Sea; Doha Round; Sustainable Development and Climate – the Doha Round had finally petered out by 2015. The Paris agreement concluded within the framework of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in December 2015 entered into force on 4 November 2016. This chapter explores the factors behind the changing shift to attempting to reach agreement. It also explores the main provisions of the Paris agreement, whilst the concluding sections look at implementation. The Paris agreement is the first major comprehensive agreement which addresses climate change, creating an overall regime for dealing with emission and related climate changes issues. For implementation, the institutional arrangements of the Paris agreement partly utilise the existing arrangements of the UNFCCC convention.
