The parliamentarians around the world find themselves faced with a major task of developing wise and effective climate legislation, which can maintain the world on course with the goals set by the Paris Agreement of 2015. Using legislation,the parliaments must hold the government firm on an overall climate goal. They must approve the laws that are a prerequisite for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and create an understanding among their respective voters for the measures deemed necessary to contribute to the solution to the challenge of climate change.

Unfortunately, there is no blueprint and definitive answer to the question of what constitutes good climate legislation. Fortunately, however, there are now many experiences upon which we can draw in order to reduce the risk that ambitions for good climate laws are not fulfilled. In this handbook for parliamentarians, Steen Gade, former MP in Denmark and former member of the Nordic Council, has collected some of the experiences of climate legislation and parliamentary climate work that has been carried out in the Nordic countries so far. The book contains some advice and tips on how to become a climate clever parliamentarian. The Nordic Council decided to publish this book in the hope that both current and future generations of parliamentarians in the Nordic countries, as well as in other countries, will be inspired and benefit from it, in the effort to limit the dangerous effects of global climate change.