Mitigation in the Negotiations

Climate change mitigation has been a central element in the intergovernmental negotiations carried out under the UNFCCC process. Negotiations on various items dealing with different aspects of mitigation pursuant to the Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement are currently ongoing under the negotiating bodies under the UNFCCC.

The Convention: Recognizing the centrality of mitigation to global climate action, the Convention requires all Parties to undertake mitigation measures subject to their specific national priorities and circumstances. Over the years, Parties have reached several landmark agreements addressing mitigation under the Convention including the Bali Action Plan, Cancun Agreements, Warsaw Framework for REDD-plus and Paris Agreement. Negotiations on mitigation under the Convention have encompassed a range of topics including mitigation actions by developed country Parties towards their economy-wide targets under the Convention, nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing countries, technical examination process for pre-2020 ambition, and specific sectoral and methodological issues such as emissions from bunker fuels, REDD-plus and common metrics.

The Convention also requires Parties to take into full consideration, in the implementation of the commitments of the Convention, the specific needs and concerns of developing country Parties arising from the impact of the implementation of response measures.

The Kyoto Protocol: The Kyoto Protocol sets binding emission reduction targets for industrialized countries and requires them to meet those targets primarily through domestic mitigation measures, even while providing for an additional means of doing so using market-based mechanisms. Negotiations pursuant to the Kyoto Protocol have centred on the rules and modalities for its implementation (e.g. Marrakech Accords), addressing topics such as land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) and market-based mechanisms, and its extension for a second commitment period, which culminated in the adoption of the Doha Amendment.

The Paris Agreement: Mitigation lies at the heart of Parties’ efforts to achieve the overall purpose and long-term temperature goals set out in the article 2 of the Paris Agreement of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C. Under the Paris Agreement, each Party is required to put forward successive and progressively more ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs), representing its highest possible mitigation ambition. As part of the Paris Agreement Work Programme Parties are currently considering further guidance for NDCs in relation to the mitigation section of decision 1/CP.21 under the APA, common time frames for NDCs referred to in Article 4, paragraph 10, of the Paris Agreement under the SBI, matters relating to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement under the SBSTA and modalities, work programme and functions of the forum on the impact of the implementation of response measures under the SBI and SBSTA.