National climate change legislation: The key to more ambitious international agreements?

This report by Terry Townshend and Adam Matthews argues that ambitious domestic climate change legislation, specifically targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enables countries to champion more ambitious collective action within the UNFCCC international negotiations.

• Countries that enact robust domestic climate targets tend to carry that ambition into international arenas, as seen in the examples of South Korea, Mexico, and the UK.
• Domestic climate leadership translates to global leadership through three primary drivers: competitiveness, confidence, and knowledge. Competitiveness drives countries to encourage others to price carbon to mitigate competitive impacts, while the process of legislating builds knowledge regarding the costs of ambition versus inaction and the opportunities of low-carbon investment.
• The implementation of domestic legislation provides proof of co-benefits—such as energy security, efficiency, resilience, air quality, and reduced price shock vulnerability—which gives governments the confidence to push for more ambitious international agreements.
• National climate legislation acts as an enabler that creates the political space for international deals and could potentially form the basis of an 'outcome with legal force' in 2015 under the Durban Platform.
• The authors recommend that governments support the creation of cross-party parliamentary groups on climate change, engage legislators around annual UNFCCC meetings, and support international processes to help legislators develop climate change legislation and promote good practice.

APA

Townshend, T., & Matthews, A. (2013). National climate change legislation: The key to more ambitious international agreements? Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/resource/national-climate-change-legislation-the-key-to-more-ambitious-international-agreements

Chicago

Townshend, Terry, and Adam Matthews. National climate change legislation: The key to more ambitious international agreements? Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2013. https://cdkn.org/resource/national-climate-change-legislation-the-key-to-more-ambitious-international-agreements.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Townshend |first1=Terry |last2=Matthews |first2=Adam |title=National climate change legislation: The key to more ambitious international agreements? |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=2 August 2013 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/national-climate-change-legislation-the-key-to-more-ambitious-international-agreements |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{townshend2013national, author = {Townshend, Terry and Matthews, Adam}, title = {{National climate change legislation: The key to more ambitious international agreements?}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2013}, month = aug, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/national-climate-change-legislation-the-key-to-more-ambitious-international-agreements}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }