In the year running up to the publication of this working paper, the Agreement on Climate Transformation 2015 (ACT 2015) consortium focused intensively on thinking through the core elements of the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations for a new international Agreement in Paris in December 2015. The consortium, with expert representation from key geographic regions, was formed to engage a broader group of stakeholders around the world, in country, to inform thinking, and to bring ideas into the formal negotiations. This document offers the consortium’s ideas on how the international Agreement can play the most effective and transformational role in shifting the world to a low carbon, climate-resilient economy as quickly and fairly as possible.

The paper argues, based on research, that there is no longer a choice to be made between economic growth and tackling climate change; rather, they are positively reinforcing goals that result in multiple benefits.