The Plaster of Paris: ECO’s Recipe for a Robust Rulebook
4 December 2018
Plaster of Paris” widespread use for molds, casts, and ornamental work is derived, in part, from the fact that it does not crack. According to the Internet (which is never wrong), this construction material derives its name from the fact that its source material, a fine white powder, has historically been found in abundance right outside of Paris. ECO thought bringing a fine white powder across the border into Katowice seemed unadvisable, so ECO has come up with another set of ingredients: ones that will create a robust rulebook that does not crack and ensures the highest ambition.
The key ingredients for this Rulebook include:
- Detailed guidance on how a Party can demonstrate that its NDC:
- Is 1.5°C compatible; fits into a Party’s long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategy, contributes to a phase-out of fossil fuels and the transition to 100% renewable energy, and represents its highest possible mitigation effort;
- is fair and equitable and incorporates rights-related considerations, including a gender perspective; and
- represents leadership in the case of developed countries and
- a progression towards economy-wide mitigation measures on the part of developing countries.
- A five-year common time frame for NDC implementation.
- Biennial transparency reporting that begins in 2022, in time for the first global stocktake, and has a common GHG inventory time series endpoint of year minus 2.
- Operationalize Article 9.5, whereby, all contributor countries agree to provide similar types of ex-ante information for every channel and source, including a common timeline and format for submissions.
- Robust accounting rules for climate finance, including providing grant equivalent amounts for loans and other non-grant instruments and separate reporting for loss & damage support.
- Adaptation communications that include a separate section on loss & damage.
- LULUCF accounting guidance based on the Convention inventory reporting regime (work may continue after COP24 rather than rush into a poor outcome).
- Ability of a technical expert review team to track and assess a Party’s progress in implementing its NDC.
- A facilitative, multilateral consideration of progress process that includes active observer participation, especially regarding the ability to ask questions of countries.
- A Compliance Committee that is capable of initiating considerations of individual Party and systemic matters, issue statements of concern and findings of non-compliance, limit participation in market mechanisms, and holds its meetings in public.
- A separate workstream on loss and damage in the global stocktake.
- Rules for the transfer of mitigation outcomes that ensure environmental integrity by requiring that emission reductions are real, additional, verifiable, permanent, are supplemental to 1.5°C compatible national mitigation and are not double counted towards multiple objectives, including voluntary objectives and carbon neutrality claims.
- International sustainable development criteria for market mechanisms, a grievance process governed by an independent body and clear guidance for local and global stakeholder consultation processes.
- A Technology Framework that ensures the focus of technology development transfer is on the most vulnerable populations and balances support for adaptation and mitigation related technology.
The Rulebook is just one part of the package that Katowice needs to deliver. It is essential to enhance climate action immediately and revise NDCs in line with the SR1.5, initiate discussions on the post-2025 long-term finance goal, provide high-level guidance for next year’s review of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage, finalize the operation of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform, and ensure that the Koronivia joint work on agriculture remains relevant to climate goals and agricultural contexts on the ground.
If Parties follow these instructions, the result is sure to be a masterpiece!