The UN climate regime is not yet organized around implementation at the scale and speed required by the Paris Agreement. This analysis finds a gap between institutional activity and demonstrable delivery: only 43% of the reviewed bodies and funds make a direct contribution to Paris implementation, while COP31’s agenda remains overwhelmingly procedural.
The Transforma brief, authored by Alejandra López Carbajal, Maritza Florián Buitrago and Pamela Escobar Vargas, examines 17 constituted bodies, six multilateral climate funds and 96 agenda items across COP31, CMA8 and CMP21. It finds that 22% of the institutions reviewed do not sufficiently demonstrate how their functions relate to implementation, while 35% show no demonstrable contribution under the review’s criteria. Among agenda items, only 14% could result in substantive decisions, compared with 86% that could be procedural.
The paper therefore calls for stronger links between institutional mandates, negotiating outcomes and delivery on the ground. Its ten recommendations focus on institutional effectiveness, systemic coordination, political direction, finance, technology, capacity-building, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and the relationship between formal negotiations and implementation initiatives.
“Across these categories, the central concern is the gap between institutional activity and timely, scaled and demonstrable facilitation and support for implementation.”
Key recommendations
- Review constituted bodies as a system, linking mandates, coordination and accountability to demonstrable implementation results, including uptake by Parties, other bodies and relevant actors.
- Reorient future COP agendas toward strategic political direction and implementation, using GST2 to identify barriers, establish milestones and enable course correction while reducing repetitive procedural consideration.
- Strengthen the interface between the Global Climate Action Agenda, government-led initiatives and the formal regime so implementation evidence can inform national reporting, GST2 and further political or institutional action.
Read the full brief to explore all ten recommendations and the annex assessing how constituted bodies contribute to Paris Agreement implementation.
How to cite this document
López Carbajal, A., Florián Buitrago, M., & Escobar Vargas, P. (2026). Building an Implementation-Oriented Climate Governance Architecture. Transforma.
