A double threshold of parties and emissions brought the Paris Agreement into force, and its pledges are renewed every five years

Background

The Paris Agreement was concluded at Paris, 12 December 2015, having been adopted at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Paris from 30 November to 13 December 2015.
Article 21(1) provided that the Agreement enters into force on the thirtieth day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention, accounting in total for at least an estimated 55 per cent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions, have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.
That double threshold was met, and the Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016; it was registered the same day under No. 54113.
Under article 20 it was open for signature at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 22 April 2016 until 21 April 2017, by States and by regional economic integration organizations that are Parties to the Framework Convention.
The United Nations describes it as a legally binding international treaty whose long-term goals include holding the global temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.
Every five years each country is expected to submit an updated national climate action plan, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution, in which it sets out how it will cut emissions and build resilience.
The first global stocktake of collective progress was carried out in 2023.