As part of the Cancun Agreement, reached on December 11 in Cancun, Mexico, at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16), Parties decided to establish a Standing Committee (SC) to assist the COP in relation to the financial mechanism of the Convention. The SC is to assist the COP in exercising its functions with respect to the financial mechanism of the Convention in terms of improving coherence and coordination in the delivery of climate change financing, rationalization of the financial mechanism, mobilization of financial resources and measurement, reporting and verification of support provided to developing country Parties.

At COP 17, Parties further defined the roles and functions, as well as the composition and working modalities, of the SC. The SC will report and make recommendations to the COP, for its consideration, at each ordinary session of the COP on all aspects of its work.

The SC will assist the COP in exercising its functions with respect to the financial mechanism of the Convention through activities, such as:

• Organizing a forum for communication and continued exchange of information among bodies and entities dealing with climate change finance in order to promote linkages and coherence;
• Maintaining linkages with the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and thematic bodies of the Convention;
• Providing to the COP draft guidance for the operating entities of the financial mechanism of the Convention, with a view to improving the consistency and practicality of such guidance, taking into account the annual reports of the operating entities as well as submissions from Parties;
• Making recommendations on how to improve the coherence, effectiveness and efficiency of the operating entities of the financial mechanism;
• Providing expert input, including through independent reviews and assessments, into the preparation and conduct of the periodic reviews of the financial mechanism by the COP;
• Preparing a biennial assessment, overview of climate finance flows, to include information on the geographical and thematic balance of such flows, drawing on available sources of information, including national communications and biennial reports of both developed and developing country Parties, information provided in the registry, information provided by Parties on assessments of their needs, reports prepared by the operating entities of the financial mechanism, and information available from other entities providing climate change finance;
• Additionally, the SC will perform any other functions that may be assigned to it by the COP.

The SC will meet at least twice a year, or more if necessary.  The COP will conduct a review of the functions of the SC in 2015.


Update

At COP 18, Parties welcomed the operationalization of the SC and the progress achieved by the SC. Furthermore, Parties endorsed the work programme of the SC. The COP also welcomed the work on the forum of the SC and encouraged the SC to facilitate the participation of the private sector, financial institutions and academia in the forum and requested the SC to report on the forum in its report to the COP.

COP 18 adopted the revised composition and working modalities of the SC and decided that the Chair and Vice-Chair of the SC shall serve as Co-Chairs of the SC. Furthermore, the COP decided that the name of the SC shall be changed to Standing Committee on Finance.

Developed country Parties were invited to submit to the secretariat, by May 2014, information on the appropriate methodologies and systems used to measure and track climate finance. The COP requested the SC, in preparing the first biennial assessment and overview of financial flows, to consider ways of strengthening methodologies for reporting climate finance.



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