A Pathway to a Climate Change Agreement in 2015: Options for Setting and Reviewing GHG Emission Reduction Offers

The document argues that the 2015 climate change agreement requires a new mitigation architecture that balances national ownership with multilateral coherence to keep global temperature rise below 2°C. It suggests a system of "levels" of guidance for emission reduction offers, starting with simple common parameters and increasing in complexity, alongside a systematic and frequent approach to submitting and reviewing offers to drive necessary reductions.

• To limit global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, there is a need for significantly higher ambition, especially from current and future major greenhouse gas emitters, distributed equitably based on past and future contributions to climate change.
• The author proposes a framework for emission reduction offers based on "levels" of guidance, beginning with basic common parameters such as the specific greenhouse gases covered and the global warming potentials used, then progressing toward more complex requirements.
• The document asserts that a systematic and frequent process for submitting and reviewing emission offers is necessary because without such a mechanism, the agreement will fail to achieve the reductions required to stay below 2°C.
• The paper argues that previous approaches to climate commitments—either purely national offers without guidance or purely internationally negotiated commitments—are inadequate for the post-2020 regime, necessitating a hybrid approach that combines national ownership with multilateral coherence.

APA

World Resources Institute (2015). A Pathway to a Climate Change Agreement in 2015: Options for Setting and Reviewing GHG Emission Reduction Offers. https://www.wri.org/pathway-climate-change-agreement-2015-options-setting-and-reviewing-ghg-emission-reduction-offers

Chicago

World Resources Institute. A Pathway to a Climate Change Agreement in 2015: Options for Setting and Reviewing GHG Emission Reduction Offers. 2015. https://www.wri.org/pathway-climate-change-agreement-2015-options-setting-and-reviewing-ghg-emission-reduction-offers.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=A Pathway to a Climate Change Agreement in 2015: Options for Setting and Reviewing GHG Emission Reduction Offers |date=2015 |url=https://www.wri.org/pathway-climate-change-agreement-2015-options-setting-and-reviewing-ghg-emission-reduction-offers |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2015pathway, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{A Pathway to a Climate Change Agreement in 2015: Options for Setting and Reviewing GHG Emission Reduction Offers}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2015}, url = {https://www.wri.org/pathway-climate-change-agreement-2015-options-setting-and-reviewing-ghg-emission-reduction-offers}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }