Abstract: In October 2006, the UK published "Stern Review? The Economics of Climate Change", in which the authors (Stern et al.) highlight the urgency of global actions to address climate change, emphasize that the early and deep reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is necessary to avoid the large economic losses resulted from the global temperature rising over 2℃, and state that the costs of reduction are moderate. In April 2008, Stern put forth a new report to discuss the elements of the global climate regime beyond 2012 to achieve the above objective, which could be influential to subsequent international negotiations. In this paper, based on the comparison of characteristics of the two reports and their linkages, some key elements of the new report, such as basic principles for the design and evaluation of international climate regime, the long-term objective of global emission reduction and burden sharing, the participation of developing countries, and international policy incentives related to finance, technology, market and adaptation, the emissions reduction from deforestation, and policy implementation and institutional construction, are reviewed and analyzed in more details. The insights from the new report could illuminate the further research work in this field and the China's strategy to participate in the international climate negotiations.

Key words: Stern report, international climate regime beyond 2012, international climate negotiations