Books Chapters

The current international climate change regime has a long history, and it is likely that its evolution will continue, despite such recent setbacks as the decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement of 2015. Indeed, the U.S. withdrawal may spur efforts by other members of the international community to strengthen the Paris accord on their own. This volume offers an original contribution to the study of the international political context of climate change over the last three decades, with fresh analyses of the current international climate change regime that consider both the challenges of maintaining current structures and the possibilities for creating new forms of international cooperation. In this chapter, Bodansky and Rajamani examine the COPs of the UNFCCC to see if it remains an important forum, or if it will tend to be superseded recently by initiatives emanating from the G7 or the G20. The authors also provide an overview of the Paris Agreement, including the avenues of further elaboration of the agreement.