Assessing the adequacy of the global response to the Paris Agreement: Toward a full appraisal of climate ambition and action

Abstract

This commentary places the international climate governance assessment offered in this Special Issue in the broader context of a comprehensive framework for assessing the adequacy of the global response to meet the Paris Agreement long-term goals. It suggests ways to further advance global governance assessments in supporting the dynamic process of progressively strengthening collective ambition and action. It finds that the sectoral systems approach enables the operationalization of multidimensional adequacy assessments. It also identifies the need to further improve the integration of multiple levels of governance and short- and long-term time horizons. Lessons from the discussion on sectoral granularity, multi-scale considerations and short-long term coherence are finally synthetized as guiding principles for the design of key processes and instruments of the Paris Agreement. This leads to highlighting priorities for the design of the Global Stocktake and the further elaboration of the instrument of countries’ Long Term Strategies.