Background

Multilateral assessment (MA) is part of the international assessment and review (IAR) process for developed country Parties which assesses individual countries on their progress in meeting their 2020 targets. By providing up to date, expert-reviewed information and opportunities for peer engagement, MA and IAR help to promote the comparability of efforts among all developed countries, building confidence that all developed countries are implementing climate actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The MA is undertaken for each developed country Party after the submission and technical review of their biennial reports. In 2020, the fourth cycle of IAR started with the submission of the fourth biennial reports from Annex I Parties and the technical review of these reports by international expert review teams.

Objective and description

The MA process serves as foundation of the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement, which represents an important component of increasing ambition to tackle climate change by building trust and confidence that countries are taking actions.

During this round of MA, ten countries – Australia, European Union, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland - will be sharing their achievements, climate actions and experiences in meeting their 2020 climate targets. The MA allows all Parties to the UNFCCC to ask questions to clarify a country’s emission reduction actions and targets, as well as greenhouse gas trends and projections.

Proposed programme

*The order of some countries has been changed due to conflicts in scheduling.