News

2018 is turning into a crucial year for anyone involved in climate transparency. This is because at the last UN Climate Change Conference (COP23), held in Bonn in November 2017, a draft structure for the new rulebook – the modalities, procedures and guidelines (MPGs) – for the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement has been  developed in the form of an informal note compiling the views of all Parties. The task this year will be to further discuss areas of convergence and of divergence on the basis of a reflection note by the co-chairs (to be available in April 2018) so as to further agree on specific elements and advance the work on  the MPGs, which are to be finalised at COP24 in Poland. This involves tackling key questions such as how to track progress in NDC implementation, what the accounting rules should be, how to apply existing guidelines, timeframes for reporting, the form of the flexibility provided to developing countries that need it in light of their capacities, and guidelines for the transparency of adaptation measures.

You can find a link to the informal note in the right margin.

The Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement will continue to play an active role in steering this process. For instance, this year will again see a repeat of the Annual Partnership Retreat, where negotiators and experts from various governments will have the chance to share their views on the development of the MPGs in an informal, confidential setting. This year’s retreat will take place in the Republic of Korea in the second half the year (concrete date tbc). The Partnership Meetings offer another major platform for political dialogue on transparency. The next meeting is expected to be held as a fringe event during the climate talks in Bonn in May. Forums such as the Partnership Meetings and retreats could also be suitable opportunities to discuss potential inputs for the Talanoa Dialogue. All partner countries are invited to get involved in this and put forward proposals.

To develop the ETF further and prepare countries for its implementation, it is important to consider what national frameworks for Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) are already in place, what experience the countries have built up in this area and what challenges are still to be overcome. With this in mind, the pPartnership runs regular workshops in the five regional and language-based groups, bringing together political decision-makers and practitioners. This year, some of these workshops will deal specifically with the issue of ‘transparency of adaptation’, as this is an area in which a number of countries have expressed a need for support. However, they will also cover other topics such as collecting and processing data in individual sectors, and institutional MRV arrangements. The first regional workshop for 2018 is scheduled for 28 to 30 March in Bangkok and will welcome country representatives from the Asia-Pacific region.

The Partnership is designed as a central knowledge platform for climate policy. Its digital channels are used to disseminate information on political developments – either globally or within specific partner countries – as well as details of useful publications, tools and opportunities for support. In this vein, the Partnership’s website was redesigned  in November 2017 to make it more user-friendly. The website’s core functions are now being upgraded further, with the database for knowledge products such as studies and manuals (‘Documents & Tools’) now easier to search. The database containing case studies on successful climate policy and climate change measures (‘Good Practice‘) in various countries is also due to be relaunched shortly. In addition, the partnership publishes its own documents. The first of two publications currently in the pipeline is a discussion paper on ‘Flexibility and Capacity Building towards Enhanced Transparency under the Paris Agreement’, which carries on the debates from the 2017 Annual Partnership Retreat. The second is another discussion paper entitled ‘National Benefits of Transparent Climate Reporting’, which is being prepared in conjunction with the GIZ project Information Matters.

Cultivating and expanding links with other initiatives, programmes and organisations is also an important aspect of the Transparency Partnership’s work. This year the main focus is on the dialogue with the NDC Partnership, but efforts are also being made to maintain good relationships with other key partners such as the secretariat of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT), the NDC Support Cluster and the Global Support Programme (UNDP GSP) run by the United Nations Development Programme.