UN Climate Change News, 4 December 2020 - Through a series of online events held during the UNFCCC Climate Dialogues, 27 countries shared the latest updates on their climate actions.
These events are organized as part of the multilateral processes set up in 2010 under the Convention to enhance transparency in addressing climate change. The transparency processes enable countries to exchange views on climate actions and better understand what is needed to strengthen their capacities for further actions.
Highlighting the importance of the transparency process to build trust among governments and increase climate ambition, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, said: “By maintaining momentum on critical transparency processes over the past year, Parties have also maintained action. We must keep it up.”
Facilitative Sharing of Views
For developing countries, Parties undertook the Facilitative Sharing of Views (FSV) under the process of International Consultation and Analysis (ICA) from 24 to 27 November 2020.
A total of 17 developing countries - Azerbaijan, Brazil, China, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), El Salvador, Georgia, Indonesia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Namibia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Singapore and South Africa - presented updated information on their progress with climate actions and highlighted capacity building needs during the 9th workshop of FSV. This is the largest number of Parties that have participated in an FSV workshop since the initial workshop was convened in 2016.
Discussion during the workshop demonstrated that developing countries are stepping up their efforts in taking climate actions with increasing ambition. Many countries indicated they are on track to meet their 2020 pledges, while a number of countries shared their new initiatives. For example, during its national presentation at this workshop, China highlighted its recently announced long-term goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
2060 carbon-neutrality goal from China’s FSV presentation
Presentations during the FSV workshop showed that developing countries are making efforts to strengthen their climate legislation in order to mainstream the climate change agenda into national planning processes and increase predictability of climate actions.
To achieve the mid-term targets and long-term goals, developing countries are increasingly adopting more robust mitigation strategies and policies. Some examples presented during the workshop include Namibia’s feed-in tariff programme to promote renewable energy, the emission trading schemes in China, and carbon taxes in Colombia, Mexico, Singapore and South Africa. In addition, Singapore shared its plan to phase out internal combustion engines by 2040.
Key mitigation measures from Singapore’s FSV presentation
In addition, many developing countries highlighted their progress in formalizing institutional arrangements and data sharing agreements to establish a sustainable system to prepare relevant data and meet the reporting requirements for climate transparency.
For highlights of the presentations delivered by all 17 participating countries during the 9th workshop of FSV, please click here.
To read more on the information shared by developing countries through the ICA process, please see here.
Multilateral Assessment
Over the last two weeks, ten developed country Parties - Australia, the European Union (EU), Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland - took part in a virtual Multilateral Assessment, as part of the International Assessment and Review process.
In terms of overall progress, all ten countries are on a path to meeting their 2020 targets, with a number of them are set to overachieve. For some, this will be achieved through domestic measures alone, but others will rely on international market-based mechanisms to help close the gap.
As they shift to a post-2020 perspective, countries also increasingly referred to their longer-term ambitions. For example, the EU referred to plans to enhance its national climate action plan (known as NDC) and implement a new climate law; Finland noted its ambitions to reach carbon neutrality by 2035; and Sweden spoke of its aims to generate negative emissions post-2045.
From a different perspective, the Netherlands outlined how broad stakeholder engagement and a strong legal framework are key to fulfilling their emissions reductions commitments. By providing clarity on their future plans through low-carbon strategies and national targets, countries are also building confidence that the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement can be reached.
Stakeholder engagement in developing climate legislation from the Netherlands presentation
Progress toward net-zero emissions - from Switzerland’s MA presentation
To reach both their short- and long-term goals, Parties outlined a broad suite of policies and measures aimed at decarbonizing their economies and societies, delinking emissions and economic growth, and driving the transition toward a low-carbon future. Central to this progress are well-known measures like carbon taxes and EU emissions trading, but also new measures such as Australia’s Technology Investment Roadmap, Germany’s national emissions trading system, Norway’s plans to fully decarbonize the transport sector, Switzerland’s plans to phase out fossil fuel use, and Portugal’s efforts to increase renewable energy up to 100%.
Reflecting on actions already implemented, Italy also highlighted how they had achieved significant emissions reductions despite economic and population growth. In a number of cases, Parties described how actions to reduce emissions also produced a range of other co-benefits – from cleaner air to a more competitive industrial sector. This shows that actions to address climate change can in fact have a positive economic impact and drive a broader transition toward a fairer economy.
For highlights of the presentations delivered by the all ten participating countries during the MA session, please see here.
For more information on Multilateral Assessment, including presentations of the 10 Parties recently assessed, please see here.
Moving towards an enhanced transparency framework
Both developed and developing countries noted that the transparency process helps them improve their reporting systems over time and make better informed policy choices.
Building on the experience of the current processes, countries are set to roll out the enhanced transparency framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement soon. The ETF will further help countries strengthen their efforts to gather and share relevant data and track progress of climate actions and support. Some of the key questions that stakeholders are asking on the operationalization of the ETF are addressed under the Frequently Asked Questions on ETF.