A new international climate change agreement that will have legal force and be applicable to all countries is being negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The agreement is to be adopted by 2015 and come into effect from 2020. An...

The term low-emission development strategies (LEDS) first emerged under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2008 and its possible role in a future climate framework continues to be debated. Though no formally agreed definition exists, LEDS are generally used to...

The Bali Action Plan (BAP) indicated the importance of “measurable, reportable and verifiable” (MRV) greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation actions and commitments, as well as support for GHG mitigation actions, in the post-2012 climate framework. Negotiations underway for this framework have...

Sectoral approaches are proposed as a means to broaden the global scope of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation to developing countries. Market mechanisms are put forward in that context to create incentives for mitigation in developing countries beyond the existing Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),...

Determining comparability of effort between mitigation actions and targets proposed by different countries is an ongoing issue for international climate negotiations. A number of indicators have been proposed to reflect comparability of effort and differences in national circumstances; key...

The Bali Action Plan introduced the notion of linking GHG mitigation action in developing countries with support for such action, in a "measurable, reportable and verifiable (MRV)" manner. However, it does not specify the relationship or link that may be made between nationally appropriate...

The current monitoring, reporting and review framework under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has a number of strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses include inconsistent and/or incomplete self reporting of financial support; infrequent reporting; limited and incomplete...

The Cancun Agreements outlined the list of topics to be included in biennial reports and indicated that guidelines for them were to be developed, but provided limited guidance on their structure and content. This paper proposes a structure for biennial reports for both developed and developing...

Market-based mechanisms offer a number of advantages to other regulatory approaches for GHG mitigation such as technology or performance standards and feed-in tariffs. Advantages include their ability to attain an emissions goal at lower cost and to create incentives for innovation among sources...

This paper outlines options for new reporting guidelines for national communications from Annex I and non-Annex I countries, both for “full” national communications and biennial “updates”. These reports can facilitate the sharing of information between Parties and may be used to assess...