UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement

Two treaties anchor international climate law: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992 and the Paris Agreement, 2015. Each party sets its own nationally determined contributions on a five-year ratchet cycle, reported through the enhanced transparency framework and assessed in the Global Stocktake, first concluded in 2023. Self-determination of contributions, rather than externally allocated targets, is what distinguishes the Paris architecture from earlier approaches. India frames its contributions as a reduction in emissions intensity of GDP against a 2005 baseline and as a share of non-fossil installed electric power capacity, not as an absolute emissions cap.