Washington, D.C. — A new report released today 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, A Decade of National Climate Action: Stocktake and the Road Ahead, reveals that the Paris Agreement sparked new approaches to climate governance and policy in countries, but that more still needs to be achieved in the decade ahead.
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. The report draws on analysis from DDP experts across 21 countries, representing a diversity of geographies, levels of development, and sizes (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, EU, Germany, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand, United States). The United States chapter of the report was led by the Center for Global Sustainability.
“The Paris Agreement was designed as a catalyst for national action, and ten years on we can see the results,” said Henri Waisman, Director of the DDP Initiative. “Countries have begun to reshape climate governance, embed long-term perspectives into policymaking, and accelerate technological change. This progress is significant. But the lesson of the past decade is equally clear: if we are to achieve the goals of Paris, the next decade must be about scaling up efforts, addressing social and industrial challenges, and ensuring that ambition is consistently translated into effective action.”
The report finds that the Paris Agreement has spurred new approaches to climate governance and policy. Scientific evidence is now more widely used to guide decisions, long-term goals are increasingly shaping national strategies, and governments have introduced stronger mandates, established new institutions, and engaged a wider range of stakeholders. National policies have also accelerated the deployment of low-carbon and energy-efficient technologies and enabled immediate emission reductions in sectors where technological solutions are mature.
“This report shows that the Paris Agreement has changed the way countries think and act on climate. We see real progress in governance and policy, but also persistent gaps that cannot be ignored,” said Sébastien Treyer, Executive Director of IDDRI. “Recognising both achievements and failures is essential: only by learning from the past decade can we create the conditions for a faster, fairer and more ambitious transition in the years ahead,” he added.
“The current federal policy landscape in the United States has raised questions about the country’s ability to carry out the level of climate action needed to drive emissions reductions at a sufficient pace to meet 2035 emission reduction goals,” said CGS Director Nate Hultman, lead author of the U.S. chapter of the report. “However, we found that consistent climate leadership from a diverse set of subnational governments and other non-federal actors can, over time, continue U.S. momentum toward global climate goals, significantly shifting the aggregate level of emissions, and creating a runway for eventual and more effective federal re-engagement."
But the report also points to shortcomings that have slowed momentum. Long-term strategies are often left disconnected from concrete policy decisions. Interministerial coordination remains challenging. Policies still tend to focus on immediate emission cuts, without giving enough attention to the actions needed now to secure longer-term reductions on the path to carbon neutrality. Social and industrial concerns have at times undermined climate ambition. These are not marginal issues: they illustrate the real difficulties of turning ambition into action. By identifying these failures clearly, the report stresses where countries and the international community should focus more specifically for more ambitious transitions in the next decade.
The U.S. chapter analyzes the past decade of climate progress and sectoral transitions, finding uneven progress shaped by shifting federal administrations and strong subnational leadership. Despite this, the United States has made progress in retiring coal, deploying renewable energy, improving efficiency, and advancing electrification efforts. Additionally, states, cities, and private actors continue to drive momentum, but renewed federal commitment and faster deployment will be critical to meeting climate targets.
This new report ties into CGS’s ongoing analysis of Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target setting and how high ambition pathways can make a significant impact on global emissions. CGS’s recently released online resource outlines pathways to achieve greater emissions reductions in major emitting countries, demonstrating that high global ambition, backed by pathways to implementable action in national contexts, can still result in an acceptable global warming limit and a clean energy transition that benefits all.
Overall, the Deep Decarbonization report identifies three key priorities for the years ahead:
- Strengthening national processes that bring together governments, finance, businesses, and civil society to design climate action grounded in science.
- Designing integrated policy packages that not only deliver short-term emissions cuts but also prepare for long-term transformations, while managing social impacts.
- Promoting innovative forms of international cooperation that are built around countries’ own needs — aligning finance with investment priorities, supporting wider diffusion of advanced technologies, and rethinking trade in ways that foster collaboration and shared benefits.
The Paris Agreement’s stocktake approach — assessing progress, acknowledging failures, and raising ambition — remains essential to accelerate the transformations needed. By taking stock of a decade of country-level action, the DDP report aims to inform both national policymaking and international processes, helping countries raise ambition in the decisive years ahead.
