What next for international climate politics? Learning and multilevel reinforcing dynamics in the UNFCCC

Abstract As the formal negotiations on the Paris Agreement implementation conclude, the focus has moved towards increasing countries' ambitions in addressing climate change through national- and EU-level policies. This requires monitoring, reporting and verification mechanisms, most notably in the form of the global stocktake. It also transforms the role of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) into a learning forum that facilitates the sharing of actors' policy design knowledge and experiences with implementation. There is also increased potential for changing policy-makers' beliefs on co-benefits between climate action and economic and social development. This article examines how learning has allowed actors to leverage policy positions and reshape policy paradigms. It explores how the learning process interacts with policy-making dynamics in the context of the UNFCCC negotiations and the multilevel reinforcing dynamics at subnational, national and EU levels between 2015 and 2023. Key findings point towards the central role of learning entrepreneurs and the need for reflection on inputs of knowledge and/or experience.