In order to address climate change, the international community established a regulatory framework in addition to adaptation and mitigation strategies being at its core, and adopted “common, but differentiated responsibility” as the fundamental principle behind the international climate change regime. However, the climate change regime has reached an impasse in recent years. This paper suggests that “common and symmetrical responsibility” should become the central organizing principle of the future climate regime in order to resolve disagreements among countries and encourage the initiative by the international community. This paper not only provides an analysis of the “bridging mechanism for adaptation and mitigation,” based primarily on the allocation of quantified emissions, limitation and reduction commitments and the sharing of multilateral climate funds, but also discusses the “cut-or-fund” scheme and “cut-and-fund” scheme in in developed and developing States, respectively under this mechanism.

1. Introduction
 2. The Dilemma of Climate Change Law in Practice
  A. Mitigation
  B. Adaptation
  C. Lessons from the Current Regime
 3. Common and Symmetrical Responsibility: A Proposalto Restructure CBDR
  A. The Limits of CBDR in Practice
  B. The Developmental Interpretation of CBDR
  C. Legal Protection of “Common and Symmetrical Responsibility”
 4. A Bridging Mechanism for Adaptation and Mitigation
  A. Overview
  B. “Cut-or-Fund” Scheme in Developed Countries
  C. “Cut-and-Fund” Scheme in Developing Countries
  D. The Conversion Rates of Adaptation Fund to QELRC’s
 5. Conclusion

• Haifeng Deng(Associate Professor of Tsinghua University, Beijing)
• Chiyuan Chen(Researcher at the Center for Environmental, Natural Resource and Energy Law, Tsinghua University)