Article 18 of the Kyoto Protocol calls on COP/MOP 1 to approve "procedures and mechanisms" to determine and address cases of non-compliance with the Protocol. At COP 4, Parties established a joint working group (JWG) on compliance to develop a compliance system under the Protocol, with a view to adopting a decision on this issue at COP 6 (see decision 8/CP.4).

The JWG operates under the SBSTA and the SBI and meets in parallel with the subsidiary bodies (it convened for the first time together with SBSTA/SBI 10 in June 1999). The JWG is co-chaired by Mr. Harald Dovland (Norway) and Ambassador Tuiloma Neroni Slade (Samoa), who replaced Mr. Espen Ronneberg (Marshall Islands) after COP 5.

A workshop on compliance was held in Bonn on 1-3 March 2000 and the JWG Co-Chairmen convened informal consultations with invited participants in Iceland on 18-20 July 2000.

At SBSTA/SBI 13 part I, (Lyon, Sept), Parties based their discussions on a text on procedures and mechanisms relating to a compliance system prepared by the JWG Co-Chairmen. The outcome of these discussions was a revision to this text (see FCCC/SBI/2000/10/Add.2), which reflects preliminary agreement that a Compliance Commitee shall be established, which will function through the plenary of the commitee, the facilitative branch and enforcement branch. Key outstanding issues include what the consequences of non-compliance should be and the membership of the compliance committee.

The JWG requested the Co-Chairmen to further develop the text coming out of Lyon, to serve as the basis for negotiations at SBSTA/SBI 13 part II in The Hague in November.
Informal consultations on compliance took place in New Delhi, India, on 12-14 October 2000.