The Paris Climate Agreement

Scott Fulton, ELI President
On December 12, 2015, the nations of the world entered into a new, and by any measure, historic agreement on climate change. With 185 countries signing up to “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs), the agreement leaves in the past the idea that climate change mitigation should be the concern and obligation only of industrialized countries. By relying on a bottom-up and aspirational modality like NDCs, the agreement’s efficacy will ultimately depend on what in fact happens at the national level, which will depend in turn on the development of national law and governance modalities sufficient to operationalize the NDCs. I had the privilege of representing ELI at COP21 in Paris (along with ELI Visiting Scholar Leslie Carothers), and will not soon forget the experience or the many conversations I had with others there about the role that an institute like ELI might play relative to work in the coming years in this arena. Given the imperative for legal and implementation infrastructure at the national level if the NDCs are to be realized, ELI’s unique strengths in working with developing and transitional nations to build the laws, governance, and capacity needed for the transformation of aspirations into practice should be of considerable service to the task at hand. We look forward to working with other partners and being part of the enabling framework that supports efforts of countries to deliver on the global compact to which they have agreed in Paris through national law and governance measures.