There is introspection in the aftermath of every Conference of Parties (COP) as to whether the Paris Agreement (PA), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate regime more widely, are working. COP29 is no exception, and has resulted in more commentary than usual on the functioning of the Paris Agreement.

There are a number of reasons for this, including: rising emissions, even as countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDC) have become more ambitious over time; evidence that 2024 saw the world reach the 1.5-degree-C limit; increasingly severe, frequent, and visible global climate impacts; a challenging geopolitical context, including the outcome of recent elections; the timing of COP29 in a relatively fallow part of the PA cycle, following on from the ‘big’ global stocktake (GST) COP in Dubai; significant dissatisfaction with the quantum of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance agreed in Baku; and the letter published by the Club of Rome during COP29.

This paper poses several questions in the lead-up to COP30, including:

• Why is the Paris Agreement not catalyzing climate action at the pace and scale needed?
• In addition to nationally determined contributions (NDC), how can international cooperation be enhanced so as to close the gap between ambition and implementation?
• How can we best use the existing international climate regime and institutions to make the Paris Agreement deliver in today’s political realities?
• What would success at COP30 look like?