The Paris Agreement is an international treaty adopted in 2015 that describes how countries will collectively address climate change and its effects. The Paris Agreement App will help climate law and policy makers, campaigners and the general public to better understand the provisions of the new Agreement. It provides the complete text of the Paris Agreement, additional explanations for articles and paragraphs, links and access to further relevant decisions by the Parties to the Agreement, other resources, an index well as a search option for the LRI database containing over 500 legal advice papers.
The text of the explanations is based on a paperback guide published under the umbrella of the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi) in March 2020: “Guide to the Paris Agreement” [link]. The authors of the commentary (Christoph Schwarte, Pascale Bird, Linda Siegele, Anju Sharma and Olivia Tattarletti) are experts with decades of first hand experience in the international climate negotiations. Their explanations to the Paris Agreement have been peer reviewed by leading academics and legal practitioners. It is regularly updated, following further meetings and decisions by the Parties to the Agreement.
The App is free and can make an important contribution to tackling climate change. If law and policy makers all over the world understand their governments’ commitments under the Agreement but also how their countries can potentially benefit from it, this will support the implementation of the Agreement. Using the App will also support civil society representatives and the general public to hold their governments accountable for addressing climate change in line with the Paris Agreement.