Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions baselines are reference emissions levels. This paper focuses on projected forward-looking baselines that can be used both to inform national climate policy and to set goals that are defined relative to a business-as-usual (BaU) scenario. As some developing...

The use of tradable greenhouse gas (GHG) units to meet emissions reduction goals is likely to continue after 2012 as many countries have expressed support for using market mechanisms to promote and enhance the cost-effectiveness of mitigation. Most such mechanisms would use tradable GHG units...

Carbon market mechanisms such as emissions trading systems and crediting mechanisms can have multiple objectives. A key goal is to lower the cost of achieving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. Market mechanisms can also catalyse investment in low carbon technologies and practices,...

Ensuring that climate finance is used effectively will help to maximise its impact. The effectiveness of climate finance can be defined as the extent to which an activity attains its stated aims. These aims can vary, depending on the source of climate finance and how it is channelled. There are...

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...

The Bali Action Plan (BAP) language on “measurable, reportable and verifiable” (MRV) greenhouse gas mitigation actions and commitments for a post-2012 climate framework was introduced to apply both to developed countries’ greenhouse gas (GHG) commitments and actions (paragraph 1(b)(i) of...

This paper reviews proposals for the design of sectoral and related market mechanisms that are being debated both in the UNFCCC negotiations and in different domestic legislative contexts. Decisions on the design and scope of the mechanisms in the UNFCCC negotiations would affect the future...

Despite its importance, regular measurement of the value of natural resources at national level is still in its infancy and often disconnected from valuation approaches for other assets. We show that there exists a consistent approach towards valuation that applies to subsoil assets and produced...