Giving Compass' Take:

• The Paris Agreement is a good start toward climate action, but it won't be enough. These researchers have identified other opportunities to make an impact on global climate. 

• How can local governments work toward climate action? Is there opportunity for global partnership that doesn't require federal participation?

• Learn how cities are making their way into the global climate change agenda.

In a new report, “Undiplomatic Action: A practical guide to the new politics and geopolitics of climate change,” David Victor and Bruce Jones outline four key factors they believe matter even more than the Paris Agreement:

  1. Facilitate leadership through small groups: In terms of global emissions, they point out, not all countries are created equal. In this respect, some countries simply “matter” more. The United States, China, and India combined, for example, comprise more than 40 percent of global emissions. Therefore, focusing on advances among small groups of heavy emitters may prove more effective than consensus-based multilateral approaches.
  2. Focus on near-term emissions reductions: The up-front costs and short-term political risks of tackling climate change often outweigh benefits that may only be seen over longer time horizons.
  3. Invest in technological innovation: To achieve the significant emissions reductions scientists say are needed by mid-century, Victor and Jones suggest, means investing in technological innovation, including in sequestration, advancing renewables, and in the shift toward electrification, particularly of the transport sector.
  4. Demonstrate success and enable better governance: They reflect: “Continuous advances in the Paris Agreement are all well and good, but not if they serve to simply open up an ever-wider gap between aspirational goals and implementable realities.” To make progress, they highlight that demonstrations of early success are needed, alongside an increasing focus on the monitoring and reporting of emissions reductions.

Read the full article on global climate action by Jennifer Perron at Brookings