FUTURES EXPO SERIES
Rapid climate action through new global agreements
Demonstrating the promise of new climate agreements to break international deadlock and accelerate progress towards net-zero
Research project
The weakness of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is holding back global decarbonisation . States volunteer their targets without mechanisms to enforce them , meaning efforts to hold global heating at 1.5 ° C will fail . There are no agreements to tackle major emissions sectors , like forests , fossil fuels , transport , and energy . Existing voluntary initiatives on coal and forests lack enforcement mechanisms and resources .
This project builds on widely discussed proposals for a global Coal Elimination Treaty and a full-scale Architecture for a Net Zero World that will include a global ban on deforestation and agreements to phase out all fossil fuels . It will also develop a proposal for a stand-alone ecocide convention to prevent large-scale ecological harm and protect the biodiversity that is so crucial to the world ’ s climate and food security .
Working across the fields of international relations , international environmental law , and earth system governance , the project will identify political and legal pathways to new agreements , set out their design principles , and build international research groups to draft model agreements .
It will also demonstrate to governments and civil society organisations the promise of new agreements to break through international deadlock and accelerate progress towards a safer climate future .
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