Zhao, A., Bertram, C., Ordonez Olazabal, K., Hinkle, L., Squire, C., Cui, R., Hultman, N. (October 2025). A Decade of National Climate Action: Stocktake And The Road Ahead. IDDRI.*
*Please find a full report citation in the report link.
- Governments are increasingly relying on long-term goals and strategies to guide climate action, although translating these perspectives into consistent and tangible policy decisions remains a work in progress. Gradual steps in this direction include formally embedding long-term perspectives in policy documents, adopting explicit, sectorally detailed action plans with clear milestones along trajectories consistent with long-term goals, and implementing policies that align with these objectives.
- Country-driven scientific analysis of national climate policies – including the use of modeling tools – has gained decisive ground and is now increasingly used to guide government decision-making. To fully unlock its potential, countries are continuing to refine analytical methods and strengthen governance structures so that scientific evidence can more effectively inform, assess and monitor climate policies.
- Since the Paris Agreement, decisive progress has been made in establishing government-led mandates, institutions, and processes on climate at the national level, involving a diversity of stakeholders, including from the economic and finance spheres. Ensuring effective interministerial coordination remains a work in progress, but countries are steadily learning how to foster stronger collaboration and build governance structures that can withstand political shifts and sustain climate action over time
A new report by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways (DDP) initiative, with the Center for Global Sustainability (CGS) at the University of Maryland, finds that 10 years after the Paris Agreement, countries have advanced national climate governance and policies, but significant gaps still remain. The report highlights progress in laying the groundwork for long-term transformation in countries and identifies priorities for future action to accelerate national climate policies and clean energy transitions in the coming decade.
A full list of report authors can be found in the full publication.