The forward-looking significance of the 2015 Paris Agreement is explored in the context of the global ecological crisis and its local manifestations. The agreement is considered as an experimentalist treaty that depends upon overarching goals, autonomous actors and iterative learning processes. It originated in efforts by UNFCCC parties, enabled by the EU, to find a way to make collective progress on climate change in the absence of a global ‘hegemon’, while being bedevilled by issues surrounding power, competition and willingness to pay. The implications of the global mitigation (temperature) and adaptation (process) goals are explored, and the systems established for attempting and reporting on them are explained. The design and content of the rest of the book are outlined.