Policy · Treaty

Paris Climate Agreement

2015 · Paris
heads of state and delegates assembled at the COP21 climate conference in Paris, 30 November 2015, where the Paris Agreement was negotiated
heads of state and delegates assembled at the COP21 climate conference in Paris, 30 November 2015, where the Paris Agreement was negotiated · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Presidencia de la República Mexicana

What it is

The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 at the COP21 climate conference under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, with 195 parties agreeing to limit the rise in global average temperature to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Each country sets and reports its own nationally determined contributions to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Cities, which account for the bulk of energy use and emissions, were widely cast as the front line of both mitigation and adaptation. Networks such as C40 mobilised mayors around the targets.

Why it matters

It made decarbonisation a binding international constraint on how cities and economies grow, elevating climate goals in urban policy. The agreement accelerated city action on transport, buildings and energy and reinforced compact, low-carbon planning agendas.

Plans it shaped

See it on the timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.