A fit for purpose approach for reporting and review under UNFCCC’s Enhanced Transparency Framework

Abstract

Abstract Parties, expert review teams and the secretariat have worked diligently over the past decades to implement a transparency system that responds to the decisions of Parties. The existing system has enhanced the transparency of Party’s reporting of climate information and has been successful in assessing Parties’ compliance with their Kyoto Protocol obligations. But that system is operating at a very high, possibly unsustainable, workload for all involved. With the ensuing demands from the enhanced transparency framework requiring more Parties to report more information more frequently, it is important to take stock of what has been learned and apply that knowledge to implement a system that adheres to the Parties’ decisions and achieves the goals of the Paris Agreement. This paper proposes implementation of a reporting and review process that is “fit-for-purpose”, with a view to ensuring that the objectives of the Paris Agreement are met in the most efficient, cost-effective and sustainable manner. Key elements in the design of a “fit for purpose” approach include: ensuring national submissions made by Parties are fit for purpose, organizing reviews in a manner that is most appropriate for the circumstances of the country under review, and preparing focused review reports that are conducive to Parties’ needs. The proposed approach starts from the basic premise that within the cyclic reporting and review process the previous review team did their job and the present review team therefore focuses on changes in the submission.