Jennifer Huang Archives - Center for Climate and Energy Solutions

A Solutions-oriented Approach to the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake

Philip Horowitz — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:57:49 +0000

To ensure success at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 28th Conference of Parties (COP28), Parties must agree to specific, operational, and transformational signals in the first global stocktake (GST). Drawing upon more than two years of analytical work and outreach, this report proposes key signals to drive a successful GST process across four key areas: mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and means of implementation.

It lays out the certainty of impact, feasibility, and barriers of each key signal, as well as existing initiatives working toward its implementation, relevant sustainable development goals, and options for outcomes of the GST at COP28. The report also underscores the importance of linking the GST outcomes to active progress in 2024 and updated nationally determined contributions in 2025.

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Issues and Options for a Just Transition Work Program

Philip Horowitz — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 19:08:25 +0000

Governments not only recognize that the transition to a zero- or low-emission economy is critical, but also that it must be “just.” In other words, it must maximize social and economic opportunities of climate action while also minimizing and addressing the challenges to those affected in this shift. At the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 27^thConference of Parties (COP27), Parties launched a work program on “just transition” to discuss pathways to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. At COP28, Parties will adopt the modalities and terms of reference for the just transition work programme and host the programme’s first high-level ministerial roundtable. The just transition work programme provides an opportunity to examine, focus, build upon, and advance ongoing work on just transition issues across the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, while avoiding unnecessary overlaps and duplication.

This paper provides background on just transition, as well as poses options and questions for the elements, modalities, and terms of reference for the work programme.

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The Santiago Network: Decision Options for COP27

Philip Horowitz — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 14:48:12 +0000

This paper presents options for each of the elements of a possible decision on the Santiago Network (SN) to be adopted at the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27), based on the draft element text considered at 56th Subsidiary Body meeting. These elements include: operational modalities (structure, roles, and necessary processes); the role(s) of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) Executive Committee (ExCom) and its expert groups, task force, and technical expert groups; the role of loss and damage (L&D) contact points and other relevant stakeholders at the subnational, national, and regional level; possible elements for the terms of reference (TORs) of a potential convening or coordinating body that may provide secretarial services to facilitate work under the SN; funding; and selection processes.

Many choices are interrelated; choosing one option will affect or determine other options. For instance, whether to establish the SN under WIM and/or ExCom is the determining factor for the role of ExCom in the SN.

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Loss and Damage: Issues and Options for COP27

Philip Horowitz — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 17:08:08 +0000

To respond to the urgency of enhancing understanding, action, and support necessary to meet the extreme challenges of climate change, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) need to accelerate action and support for loss and damage (L&D). How L&D is addressed in 2022 will be a key determinant to a successful outcome at COP27. In that context, this paper provides background and poses options and questions around four key L&D issues:

the development of the institutional arrangements of the Santiago Network
the Glasgow Dialogue
the institutional ecosystem for L&D
L&D in the global stocktake.

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The Global Goal on Adaptation: Issues for COP26

Philip Horowitz — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 16:34:56 +0000

Adaptation continues to be a high priority, and the delivery on adaptation-related topics and mandates will be integral to achieving a successful outcome at COP26. Adaptation under the Paris Agreement has several important features that together create a system that strengthens national adaptation action and international cooperation and support for adaptation. A particular emerging issue for COP26 is the global goal on adaptation (GGA). This paper provides context and poses questions on defining the GGA.

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Loss & Damage: Issues for COP26

Philip Horowitz — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 15:28:23 +0000

Parties have expressed interest in building out more effective implementation of the action and support for loss and damage (L&D). The interest in accelerating action and support for L&D has expressed itself in relation to three issues:

The development of the Santiago Network (SN)
The governance of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (mandated agenda item)
The call to scale up finance to avert, minimize, and address L&D.

This paper provides context to and poses questions on these issues.

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Climate Finance: Issues for COP26

Marty Niland — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 19:53:33 +0000

Climate finance refers to the local, national, or transnational financing that supports mitigation and adaptation actions to address climate change. It can be drawn from public, private, and alternative sources of financing. In accordance with the principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed country Parties are to provide financial resources to assist developing countries in implementing the objectives of the UNFCCC. The Convention and the Paris Agreement call for financial assistance from those Parties with more financial resources to those that are less endowed and more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Climate finance will be a key determinant of success for COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. There are many finance-related items that will impact COP26, including delivery of the US$100 billion goal and the longterm finance (LTF) program, which was due to come to an end in 2020; as well as the initiation of deliberations on a new post-2025 climate finance goal.

This brief considers the following issues in relation to how they might be addressed at COP26:

the long-term climate finance regime during the 2020–25 transition
launching deliberations on the post-2025 finance goal.

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Transparency of Action: Issues for COP 26

Marty Niland — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:58:10 +0000

At COP24 in Katowice, Poland, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) adopted a detailed set of modalities, procedures, and guidelines (MPGs) to operationalize the Paris Agreement’s enhanced transparency framework (ETF). The MPGs establish the methodologies to be used by Parties in their reporting and review under the ETF. The CMA decision laid out remaining technical work for Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) to develop for adoption by COP26 in Glasgow. While some of the technical work has progressed, other areas require further focused work. This brief considers the following issues:

addressing flexibility in relation to the national inventory report tables Parties will use in reporting on their greenhouse gas inventories
the applicability of the structured summary formats that report progress toward a Party’s nationally determined contribution
making progress on transparency in 2021 in the broader context of the Paris Agreement’s ambition.

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NDC ‘snapshot’ raises pressure on Biden climate summit

Marty Niland — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 20:04:15 +0000

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Understanding ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ Under the Paris Agreement

Marty Niland — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 17:02:52 +0000

The core of obligation of parties to the Paris Agreement is to undertake a “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) toward the global response to global change. Parties presently are preparing and submitting their second round of NDCs stipulating their respective efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through 2030. This fact sheet answers some frequently asked questions about nationally determined contributions.

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