International climate change target frameworks

This report summarises greenhouse gas emissions target frameworks for countries known to have statutory and / or highly ambitious climate change targets.

The authors looked at commitments that have been made by Sweden, Mexico, Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, New Zealand and Ireland. A summary of Catalonia’s climate change legislation was also included.

Key findings

  • Internationally, a wide range of approaches have been adopted to deal with climate change legislation and targets
  • Approaches adopted are unique to a country’s own context and circumstances
  • All the countries we looked at use their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) as the basis of target-setting and progress monitoring
  • No evidence was found of statutory annual emissions reduction targets from any of the countries that were reviewed