Achieving the Paris Agreement’s long term temperature goal will require Parties to make rapid, deep and economy-wide GHG emission reductions. One mechanism through which this can be done is domestic technical regulations. These are government imposed technical specifications, processes and other requirements for the manufacture, import, marketing or use of products. Technical regulations in many countries, for example, set mandatory emission standards for vehicles, electrical goods or buildings.
This briefing explores options to foster the development of new regulations at the international level in a fair and equitable manner. First, it examines the legal tension between such regulations and WTO law. It then outlines potential avenues for the international community to promote domestic regulatory interventions and describes the role the Paris Agreement could play in this context.