Science, People, Politics. Oct-Dec 2015

Science, People & Politics, Issue Four October - December, 2015. ISSN 1751-598X (online)

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immediately sign the Paris Agreement. Those parties to the UNFCCC who do not sign the Paris Agreement may be observers at working meetings.

The first meeting of delegates overseeing the Paris Agreement, who might not initially be the representative of all UNFCCC members, is to take place in conjunction with the first ordinary COP taking place after entry into force of the Paris Agreement. See Article 16 (6).

Delegates to the first "Paris-related working group" are to "consider and adopt the initial institutional arrangements for capacity building". By capacity the Agreement seems to mean anything from education and public engagement (See Article 12 of the Paris Agreement), to technology, information and financial mechanisms that will help a country respond effectively to climate change. The Agreement encourages beefed up and more transparent communication nationally and internationally of balanced mitigation and adaptation efforts, acknowledges the mismatch in greenhouse gas emission reduction currently existing between aspiration and reality, clarifies investigative needs, and strengthens administration of the evolving efforts to control climate change.

Article 13, for example, is all about enhancing transparency to build trust and confidence among countries with different capacities, and it establishes what it calls in its first subsection a framework for action and support, building on collective experience. Maximum flexibility in application of this article is called for by the Agreement. Current transparency arrangements include national communications, biennial reports and updates, international assessments etc..., and they are to be drawn on for implementation of enhanced transparency.

Specifically, the Paris Agreement calls in subsection 7 of Article 13 on countries to work with good practice guidelines from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to inventory anthropogenic emissions by source, and sinks. Countries must also make public what they can to enable tracking of implementation of their work to meet GHG emission reductions.

Food production must be protected as low emissions of GHGs are achieved, and, says article 2 (c), financial instruments need to be compatible with lowering GHG emissions and enhancing climate-change resilience. In particular, says article 9 (9), simplified approval procedures are needed for financing projects enhancing the readiness of the least developed countries and small island developing states to meet the consequences of climate change. These articles and subsections build on UN work in July 2015, focusing on related financial issues.

See:
http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffd3/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/Addis-Ababa-Action-Agenda-Draft-Outcome-Document-7-July-2015.pdf
Accessed 2nd February, 2016.
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Science, People & Politics issn:1751-598x (online)©.

2015

Front
cover
Issue
Four,
2015

The story starts on the contents' page, and runs through to the inside back page.

Publication 3rd February, 2015

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