This is the legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted in 2015 by parties to the UNFCCC at the Paris climate conference.

The Paris Agreement commits its signatories to set and update their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets based on the clear scientific demand to restrict global warming to well below 2°C relative to pre-industrial levels, and ideally limiting it to 1.5°C.

It superseded the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that installed binding targets only for developed nations, unlike the Paris Agreement that requires all countries to contribute through their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), whereby they set their own climate targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen those commitments over time.

In addition to establishing a clear principle that a collective effort is required to limit temperature increase, it also provided a framework for countries to trade emission reductions and carbon removals under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Among other things, Carbon Market Watch scrutinises the Article 6 guidelines, and has investigated the first batch of credits approved to transition from the old CDM to the new scheme.