In December 2015, during COP21 in Paris, 195 countries reached a historic consensus that resulted in the adoption of the Paris Agreement, an unprecedented milestone in international climate governance.
Approved ten years ago, the Paris Agreement represents a decisive step forward in establishing a coordinated global response to climate change, integrated with sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty. Its central objective is to limit the increase in the average global temperature, keeping it below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels, with efforts to restrict it to 1.5°C by the end of the century.
Ten years later, the treaty remains the main reference for global climate cooperation, but embedded in a profoundly transformed context from a scientific, political, and economic point of view. The Agreement represented a decisive step forward in establishing a coordinated global response to climate change, integrated with sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.
A new paradigm for climate action and its implications.
The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016, in record time for a climate treaty. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which assigned targets only to developed countries, the new agreement is based on the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, requiring all countries to make climate commitments.
These commitments are formalized through Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, which establish targets for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and actions to adapt to climate change. NDCs must be reviewed every five years, always with progressively more ambitious levels, reflecting scientific advances and the climate emergency.
In addition to the NDCs, the Paris Agreement is structured around fundamental pillars for its implementation:
Forests and biodiversity
The treaty recognizes the importance of natural carbon sinks and reservoirs, such as forests, and encourages their conservation and restoration. Instruments such as REDD+ are highlighted as mechanisms to reward developing countries that reduce emissions associated with deforestation and forest degradation.
Adaptation and resilience
The Agreement reinforces the recognition that climate impacts are already a reality and requires countries to strengthen their adaptive capacity. In this context, the Global Adaptation Target was established, with the aim of reducing vulnerabilities, especially in regions and populations most exposed to climate risks.
Carbon markets and international cooperation
Article 6 provides for voluntary mechanisms that allow countries to cooperate with each other, including through market instruments such as the Sustainable Development Mechanism. These instruments aim to increase the economic efficiency of climate action while promoting sustainable development.
Where we were and where we are now: the evolution of the instruments of the Agreement.
Over the course of these ten years, the provisions of the Paris Agreement have ceased to be merely commitments negotiated at the diplomatic level and have begun to guide global climate action in a more concrete way. The very design of the Agreement provided for mechanisms for continuous review and improvement, which have gained substance as the climate crisis has intensified.
When the Agreement was approved in 2015, the NDCs represented a break by establishing that all countries should make climate commitments. Ten years later, these contributions have become more detailed, with a greater sectoral focus, long-term targets and, after COP30, an increasing emphasis on implementation and monitoring of results.
The same movement occurred in the adaptation agenda. Initially recognized as a necessary pillar, the Global Adaptation Target gained progressive centrality throughout the COPs, accompanying the intensification of extreme climate events. COP30 contributed to strengthening this axis by reinforcing the integration between adaptation, financing, and national planning.
Another significant advance was the consolidation of the Global Balance Sheet. Envisioned since the signing of the Agreement, the mechanism gained substance with its first round concluded at COP28 and began to function as a key instrument for collectively assessing progress, identifying gaps, and guiding the increase in climate ambition.
These instruments reflect an important shift over the last decade. The focus has moved from simply defining commitments to concentrating on implementation, monitoring, and course correction, as the costs of inaction have become more evident.
Ten years later, the legacy and role of COP30
Brazil ratified the Paris Agreement in September 2016, and in 2022, the Supreme Federal Court granted the treaty status equivalent to that of a human rights agreement, reinforcing its centrality in the national legal system.
A decade after its adoption, the challenges have become even clearer. In 2024, the average global temperature exceeded, for the first time, the limit of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, demonstrating that the commitments made so far have not been sufficient to contain the pace of global warming. The first cycle of the Global Balance reinforced the need to accelerate implementation, expand funding, and align public policies and investments with a low-carbon trajectory.
The COP30, held in November 2025 in Belém do Pará, marked a turning point by repositioning implementation at the center of the international climate agenda. The conference reinforced the urgency of transforming commitments into concrete action, advancing the mobilization of financing, and more effectively integrating adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development. The delivery of the new NDCs, with an extended deadline of September 2025, solidified itself as one of the main indicators of the collective effort to align ambition and execution.
Ten years later, what has changed is the clarity regarding the urgency and the costs of inaction, with the effects of climate change already being felt. What remains is the centrality of the Paris Agreement as the basis for international cooperation in the face of the climate crisis. More than a diplomatic agreement, it continues as a living architecture that guides public policies, investment decisions, and business strategies in the transition to a low-carbon, resilient, and inclusive economy.
Throughout this decade, climate governance has also become more technical and structured, with instruments and concepts that have come to guide negotiations, public policies, and business decisions. To support the understanding of these mechanisms foreseen in the Paris Agreement and their evolution throughout the COPs, CEBDS provides the COP Glossary, a practical guide with... The main concepts and acronyms of the international climate agenda., Useful for following this debate even after the Bethlehem conference.
Access the glossary: https://biblioteca.cebds.org/glossario-cop
The post-COP30 era
As highlighted by Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, president of COP30, in a recent video Published on the conference's official Instagram profile (@cop30nobrasil), the Paris Agreement remains the foundation of global climate cooperation, but ten years after its adoption, it requires greater implementation capacity. The longevity of the Paris Agreement and the solidity of its institutional architecture confirm its role as the main pillar of international cooperation in the face of the climate crisis, guiding public policies, investments, and business strategies towards a resilient and low-carbon future.
