Laws & Treaties

How do we get governments and companies to implement the solutions we want them to? The answer is making laws. Laws such as a carbon tax or ‘cap and trade’ keep a check on how much an industry can emit. In addition, treaties in which countries agree to lower their emissions together are also important. They help nations agree on fair ways to cut carbon.

The most important of all these treaties is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). You might have heard of something called the Paris Agreement. This is when, in 2015, after many years of negotiation, countries agreed to lower their emissions. However, their commitments are voluntary, countries now need to turn them into laws at home, and ideally agree to lower their emissions even more during the next negotiation in 2021.