The Paris Agreement: Resolving the inconsistency between global goals and national contributions

A research paper by the NewClimate Institute analyzing the gap between the Paris Agreement's global temperature goals and the current nationally determined contributions (INDCs), arguing that several factors provide a basis for optimism regarding future alignment.

• The combined intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) currently fail to align with the Paris Agreement's goals of limiting the global average temperature increase to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts toward 1.5°C.
• Several factors suggest the inconsistency between national actions and global goals can be resolved: many contributions are conservative and may be overachieved, the INDC process has improved national policy-making (especially in developing countries), the Agreement mandates regular updates to strengthen actions, and non-state actions are not yet fully reflected in the INDCs.
• Faster-than-expected decarbonization in certain sectors provides evidence that a similar transition is possible in other sectors.

APA

Höhne, N., Kuramochi, T., Warnecke, C., Röser, F., Fekete, H., Hagemann, M., Day, T., Kurdziel, M., & Gonzales, S. (2016). The Paris Agreement: Resolving the inconsistency between global goals and national contributions. NewClimate Institute. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/the-paris-agreement-resolving-the-inconsistency-between-global-goals-and

Chicago

Höhne, Niklas, Takeshi Kuramochi, Carsten Warnecke, Frauke Röser, Hanna Fekete, Markus Hagemann, Thomas Day, Marie Kurdziel, and Sofia Gonzales. The Paris Agreement: Resolving the inconsistency between global goals and national contributions. NewClimate Institute, 2016. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/the-paris-agreement-resolving-the-inconsistency-between-global-goals-and.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Höhne |first1=Niklas |last2=Kuramochi |first2=Takeshi |last3=Warnecke |first3=Carsten |last4=Röser |first4=Frauke |last5=Fekete |first5=Hanna |last6=Hagemann |first6=Markus |last7=Day |first7=Thomas |last8=Kurdziel |first8=Marie |last9=Gonzales |first9=Sofia |title=The Paris Agreement: Resolving the inconsistency between global goals and national contributions |publisher=NewClimate Institute |date=2 November 2016 |url=http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/the-paris-agreement-resolving-the-inconsistency-between-global-goals-and |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hhne2016paris, author = {Höhne, Niklas and Kuramochi, Takeshi and Warnecke, Carsten and Röser, Frauke and Fekete, Hanna and Hagemann, Markus and Day, Thomas and Kurdziel, Marie and Gonzales, Sofia}, title = {{The Paris Agreement: Resolving the inconsistency between global goals and national contributions}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/the-paris-agreement-resolving-the-inconsistency-between-global-goals-and}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }