Published by
Norden
Year
2015

Accounting Framework for the Post-2020 Period

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have recognized the need to limit the rise in global average temperature to 2 °C compared with pre-industrial temperatures. Accordingly, Parties launched the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action in 2011 to reduce global GHG emissions through the development of a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention.1

At its nineteenth session, the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 19) invited Parties to initiate or intensify the preparation of their intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) under the 2015 agreement. Parties are developing their INDCs well in advance of COP 21 in Paris in December 2015. While the scope of INDCs is to be determined, there seems to be a common understanding that mitigation will be a key element of INDCs. Work is currently ongoing to identify information that Parties will need to provide when putting forward their contributions. It is expected that this will be decided in Lima at COP 20 in December 2014, without prejudice to the legal nature of countries’ contributions in the final agreement.

This report focuses on the development of greenhouse gas accounting rules for mitigation INDCs for the post-2020 period. Accounting rules and procedures will dictate how progress is tracked for various possible types of mitigation contributions that might be included in the 2015 agreement and how their achievement will be determined. Without such rules, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to accurately track progress toward individual INDCs as well as towards limiting warming to 2 °C or below.

The report, commissioned by the Nordic Working Group for Global Climate Negotiations,2 explores the components of a robust and rigorous accounting framework, lessons learned from existing accounting frameworks, and how such a framework can be developed for the 2015 agreement. The objective is to support the establishment of a robust and rigorous common accounting framework for the 2015 agreement, including accounting rules for international transfers of units from market-based mechanisms and the land sector.