ABSTRACT
The last three decades have witnessed the evolution of global climate change governance, involving various actors and institutions at different levels, to address, on an unprecedented scale, the adverse effect of climate change. While a diverse range of institutions have taken up the issue of climate change, the institutions within the UN framework, especially the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are globally recognised as the leading institutional arrangement on this issue. Adopted in the Conference of the Parties at the end of 2015 (COP21), the Paris Agreement entered into force in November 2016 and marks a milestone for global climate governance under the UNFCCC. As well as establishing aspirational goals to limit global temperature rise this century to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius, it establishes a basic framework for enhanced international climate cooperation post-2020 and starts a new phase of global climate governance.
