This paper focuses on the Equity Reference Framework (ERF), a proposal for addressing the imperatives of effectiveness and equity in the 2015 climate agreement.

It identifies legal, architectural and technical options for the operationalisation of the ERF in climate change regime and argues that it can play a critical role in shaping the 2015 agreement. It argues that the ERF is highly adaptable on substantive assessment inputs, legal form and architectural options and that it may thus prove to be an invaluable framework in a highly contested environment with divergent views.