Exceptionally diverse aspects of human activity result in greenhouse gas emissions that are the source of anthropogenically induced global climate change. Such emissions occur in every part of the world – a coal-fired power plant in the United States, a diesel bus in Europe, a rice paddy in Asia, and the burning of tropical forest in South America. Today's emissions will affect the global climate beyond our lifetimes – most greenhouse gases reside in the atmosphere for decades to centuries. The impacts of global climate change pose serious, long-term risks. Global climate change is the ultimate global-commons problem, with the relevant greenhouse gases mixing uniformly in the upper atmosphere, so that damages are independent of the location of emissions. Because of this, a multinational response is required. To combat the risks posed by climate change, efforts that draw in most if not all countries over the long term will need to be undertaken. The challenge lies in designing an international policy architecture that can guide such efforts.

This focus on climate policy architecture reflects the need to establish a foundation of policy principles and institutional infrastructure to inform and frame multilateral and national actions. Richard Schmalensee highlighted the need for a long-term policy architecture in his 1998 review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's assessment of policy instruments.