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The Paris Agreement: how it works

Prelims and MainsCurrent affairs on this: UNFCCC negotiations and the Paris framework

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015 and in force from 4 November 2016, is the treaty under which the world now negotiates climate action. Its goal is to hold warming well below 2°C while pursuing 1.5°C. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol it sets no country's target: each Party writes its own Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) every five years, each meant to be stronger than the last. Five mechanisms make it run: the Global Stocktake, the Global Goal on Adaptation, climate finance, Article 6 carbon markets, and the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage.

The Paris Agreement's five mechanisms

The Paris Agreement as a wheel of five mechanisms At the hub, the goal of 1.5 degrees and well below 2 degrees. Around it a ring for the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage, agreed 2022 and set up 2023. Five spokes lead to the mechanisms: Nationally Determined Contributions every five years, India's 2031 to 2035 NDC filed April 2026; the Global Stocktake every five years, first 2023 and second 2028; the adaptation goal under Article 7; finance, 100 billion dollars a year met in 2022 and the new goal of at least 300 billion a year by 2035 with a call for 1.3 trillion; and carbon markets under Article 6.2, 6.4 as the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism, and 6.8. Fund for responding to Loss and Damage agreed 2022, set up 2023 1.5°C well below 2°C NDC every 5 years; India's 2031 to 2035 NDC filed April 2026 Global Stocktake every 5 years: first 2023, second 2028 Finance 100 bn a year, met in 2022 NCQG: at least 300 bn a year by 2035; call for 1.3 trillion Carbon markets Article 6.2 6.4: Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism 6.8: non market Adaptation goal Article 7
Five mechanisms turn one temperature goal into national action; the stocktake is the ratchet.Source: Paris Agreement; COP decisions 2021 to 2024; India's NDCs of 2022 and 2026
  • Bottom up: NDCs are self set and reviewed together by the Global Stocktake every five years, so the ratchet is political, not legal. The first stocktake concluded at Dubai in 2023 and called on Parties to contribute to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, a call rather than a binding phase out; the second concludes in 2028.
  • India's 2022 NDC revised two numbers: emissions intensity of GDP down 45 per cent from 2005 by 2030 (from 33 to 35 per cent), and about 50 per cent of cumulative installed electric power capacity, not generation, from non fossil sources by 2030. The additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030 was carried forward from the 2015 NDC. Net zero by 2070, announced at Glasgow in 2021, is a long term goal, not an NDC target.
  • India's NDC for 2031 to 2035, communicated to the UNFCCC on 24 April 2026: intensity down 47 per cent from 2005 by 2035, about 60 per cent of installed capacity non fossil by 2035, and a sink of 3.5 to 4.0 billion tonnes, conditioned on international finance, technology and capacity building.
  • Article 6.2 needs "corresponding adjustments" so a reduction sold abroad is not also counted at home. MoEFCC's positive list of 17 February 2023 names 13 activities that may be traded under 6.2; anything outside it stays with India's own NDC.
  • Finance is the fault line: the Convention's obligation on developed countries against the NCQG's "wide variety of sources" language. India objected at the Baku closing plenary on 24 November 2024, calling the sum paltry and the text an optical illusion, and protesting that it was not allowed to speak before adoption.

Finance and markets in detail

The 100 billion dollar a year pledge was due in 2020 and first met in 2022, when the OECD put the figure at 115.9 billion. The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) sets at least 300 billion dollars a year by 2035 for developing countries, with developed countries taking the lead but the money drawn from public and private sources, alongside a call on all actors to scale finance to at least 1.3 trillion a year by 2035; the 1.3 trillion is a call, not a goal, and it includes the 300 billion rather than sitting on top of it. Under Article 6.4 the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism, whose rules were adopted at COP26 and completed at COP29, takes over eligible Clean Development Mechanism activities; Article 6.8 covers non market cooperation. The Loss and Damage fund has the World Bank as interim trustee and host.

Mains: Paris replaced Kyoto's top down targets with self set pledges plus a five yearly stocktake, so its strength is participation and its weakness is enforcement; India's position is that the finance obligation of developed countries is the enforceable half.

UPSC has asked

  • Mains 2025: India's commitments under the Paris Agreement, COP26 and the 2022 update of its NDC

Further reading: The Paris Agreement (UNFCCC)

See also: India's Nationally Determined Contribution · Loss and damage · BRICS as a negotiating bloc · Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism