Well below two degrees and a five-year cycle of national plans: the climate treaty adopted at COP21

Background

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change.
It was adopted by 195 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015, and entered into force on 4 November 2016.
Its overarching goal is to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The Agreement works on a five-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action, with each successive national plan meant to reflect a higher degree of ambition than the previous version.
The national climate action plans submitted under it are known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs.
Countries are also invited to formulate and submit long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies.
The Agreement established an enhanced transparency framework under which countries report on action taken and on support provided or received.
Information gathered through that framework feeds into the Global stocktake, which assesses collective progress towards the long-term climate goals.