Race to the Top: Driving Ambition in the Post-2020 International Climate Agreement

The paper proposes four complementary mechanisms to enhance the UNFCCC's effectiveness for the 2015 agreement: specifying a global long-term emissions goal (such as net zero by mid-century), establishing a predictable commitment cycle for national contributions, ensuring each cycle results in increased emissions reductions, and implementing an assessment and revision process to identify further low-carbon policies.

• The authors suggest that the 2015 agreement should include a more specific global long-term emissions goal, citing examples such as carbon neutrality, a global emissions reduction goal, or a phase-out of greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century.
• To strengthen national contributions, the paper proposes a predictable commitment cycle—potentially every five or ten years—that continues until the long-term goal is achieved and is supported by dependable information and analysis.
• The proposed architecture includes a requirement that every commitment cycle leads to scaled-up actions or greater emissions reductions for each Party, alongside an assessment and revision process to identify new low-carbon policies and areas for collaboration.

APA

World Resources Institute (2015). Race to the Top: Driving Ambition in the Post-2020 International Climate Agreement. https://www.wri.org/research/race-top-driving-ambition-2015-climate-agreement

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Race to the Top: Driving Ambition in the Post-2020 International Climate Agreement. 2015. https://www.wri.org/research/race-top-driving-ambition-2015-climate-agreement.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Race to the Top: Driving Ambition in the Post-2020 International Climate Agreement |date=2015 |url=https://www.wri.org/research/race-top-driving-ambition-2015-climate-agreement |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2015race, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Race to the Top: Driving Ambition in the Post-2020 International Climate Agreement}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2015}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/race-top-driving-ambition-2015-climate-agreement}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }