The COP26 summit in Glasgow made headway on a number of transparency-related initiatives, agreeing on time frames for future national pledges and largely nailing down the rules on uniform reporting systems.
The countries Nov. 13 agreed to a schedule for submitting reports on their climate actions and goals, reports known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Parties are “encouraged” to submit five-year pledges every five years, disappointing some who preferred the “shall” in earlier texts. The next NDCs are expected in 2025, covering the period from 2031-2035.
Another accomplishment was working out most of the rules for the “enhanced transparency framework” after six years of discussions.
Countries will report on their emissions, progress towards achieving climate pledges and their contributions to climate finance, at least every two years. In addition, parties are expected to report on climate impacts and adaptation.
The decisions of common tabular reporting formats and reporting tables are intended to facilitate more uniform submissions by the parties in their national inventory documents (NIDs) and their biennial transparency reports (BTRs), due by the end of 2024. The conclusions provide developing country parties some reporting flexibility in the light of their capacities.
The UNFCC Secretariat is charged with developing the reporting tools and make available a test version by June 2023 with a view to the final version of the tools being completed by June 2024. The Secretariat also was asked to develop a registry to record NDCs communicated by parties as well as adaptation communications.
The national reports will be subject to a UN “technical expert review” and a peer-review process known as a “facilitative multilateral consideration of progress.”
“Why does transparency matter? The whole climate regime rests on transparency,” Pete Betts, the UK and EU former lead negotiator, told a press briefing in Glasgow, according to Carbon Brief. He added: “There are no penalties in the climate regime, there’s only naming and shaming… Having a functioning transparency regime is absolutely key to the whole system working.”
A recent Washington Post investigation pointed out that some countries have not filed emissions inventories for years, and raised questions about the reliability of some of the reporting.
Veteran climate journalist Ed King tweeted, “It won’t make many headlines, but transparency rules agreed at #COP26 will make it progressively harder for countries to game the system. Tough fight & significant win.”
This digest is informed by more detailed summaries prepared by Carbon Brief, Earth Negotiations Bulletin, Climate Home News, and UNFCCC documents.
