Cooperation mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

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The Article 6 of the Paris Convention allows her in implementing the States Parties, national contributions to cooperate. Thus, among other things, emission reductions can be transferred between countries, which can be offset against national climate protection goals. The agreement on Article 6 was preceded by intensive negotiations over several years .

Overall objective of Article 6

The voluntary cooperation between states, which is made possible by Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, is intended to serve several goals. These are briefly explained below.

Ambition increase

The international cooperation under Article 6 should lead to an increase in ambition. With a view to climate protection, it is generally understood that the cooperation enables more ambitious climate protection goals for the contracting states involved. It should be emphasized that the concept of increasing ambition in the Paris Agreement is not limited to protecting the climate , but is also related to measures and goals for adaptation to the changes in the climate that are already taking place today.

Promotion of sustainable development

The cooperation mechanisms are intended to promote sustainable development . Although the focus is on avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, other sustainability dimensions must also be addressed.

Promote environmental integrity

The cooperation mechanisms must also ensure the environmental integrity of the exchange processes. This means that the mechanisms must not be used to circumvent ambitious climate protection in the participating states. For example, the transfer of emission reductions from one country to another must not lead to climate protection in the two countries being lower than in the absence of this cooperation.

Three approaches to international cooperation

The Paris Agreement offers three ways for states to cooperate internationally on a voluntary basis.

Article 6.2: "Cooperative Approaches"

Article 6.2 enables states to cooperate directly with one another without the use of an international mechanism. In this way, mitigation measures can be implemented in one country and the resulting mitigation services transferred to another country, where they can be offset against the national climate protection target.

In addition to promoting sustainable development and ensuring environmental integrity, the use of Art. 6.2 requires transparent procedures and correct accounting for the reduction performance. The latter requirement is intended to prevent emission reductions from being counted more than once - for example, both in the climate balance sheet of the country in which the climate protection measure takes place and in the country that imported the reduction measures.

Article 6.2 could find concrete application by linking national or regional instruments such as the European emissions trading system with comparable systems in order to create a common cross-border carbon market. National or bilateral credit-based systems that are located outside the UNFCCC could also apply under Article 6.2. For the use of this form of cooperation, a work program for the creation of guidelines was decided in Paris.

Article 6.4: The climate protection and sustainability mechanism

Another possibility for international cooperation is the use of the newly created “Mechanism to avoid greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable development” (Article 6.4). In contrast to the instruments used in direct intergovernmental cooperation, this mechanism is overseen by a body commissioned by the Conference of the Parties. In addition, the Conference of the Parties will adopt rules, procedures and procedures that must be taken into account when carrying out activities under Article 6.4. The design and implementation of climate protection measures as well as the review of the results achieved should therefore proceed according to uniform guidelines. As with intergovernmental cooperation under Article 6.2, the reduction efforts achieved through this mechanism can be transferred from the country in which they were implemented to another country and offset against the local climate protection target.

These activities, like the other forms of cooperation under Article 6, are intended to increase ambition and promote sustainable development. A special feature of the mechanism under Article 6.4 is the explicit aim of contributing to global emission reductions (Article 6.4 (d). The activities under Article 6.4 should not be a pure zero-sum game, as was the case with the previous Clean Development Mechanism , but instead result in an absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the global balance sheet.

Another special feature of the mechanism is its aim to involve actors from the private sector in climate protection activities (Article 6.4 (b)). Suitable incentives should be set for this. This means that non-state actors will also have the option of using the information provided under Article 6.4. use established mechanism.

Article 6.8: Non-market based approaches

As a third option, Article 6.8 created the possibility of using non-market-based approaches. As the name makes clear, market-based climate protection instruments will not play a role here.

While the other two approaches focus on cooperation in climate protection, the range of possible cooperation under Art 6.8 is much broader and, in addition to climate protection and adaptation, also includes the area of ​​technology transfer and capacity building measures. The exact functioning of these approaches is to be determined in the coming years by developing a “framework for non-market-based approaches”.

On the way to implementation: open questions and ongoing negotiations

In Paris, the contracting states agreed on the general framework and objectives of the cooperation mechanisms. However, the implementation of these goals and the precise functioning of the mechanisms remains unclear and is the subject of the ongoing UN climate negotiations. These are characterized by different political positions and numerous open technical and conceptual questions.

Open questions

A key question relates to the extent to which the activities under Article 6 should be regulated and monitored . While some states (including Brazil, EU) advocate that the activities under Article 6.2 are also bound by strict rules and monitored by a central institution, others (including Japan, China, India) are in favor of more flexibility.

Different perspectives also exist with regard to the scope of the climate protection and sustainability mechanism under Article 6.4 : While some countries, including Brazil, would like to continue the project-based approach from the CDM, others advocate a broader approach that also includes programs and sectoral approaches includes.

In other areas, on the other hand, there is a lack of conceptual clarity: There is still a discussion of what the concept of non-market-based approaches actually includes and how it can be distinguished from existing cooperation opportunities. There has recently been some progress in the negotiations in identifying examples of the measures that could benefit under such a framework, including the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies.

In addition to these questions, other areas raise technical questions. This also includes the establishment of rules for robust offsetting of the transferred reduction services. The variety of national reduction targets submitted by the contracting states poses a challenge in this regard: In order to prevent the emission reductions transferred from being counted several times and the environmental integrity of the PA from being undermined, those reductions that are exported and used by another country to achieve the target must be dated from national emissions budget of the exporting country. However, if the participating states have different national reduction targets, for example different target years, such a robust offsetting may not be possible. These and other technical questions need to be clarified before the mechanisms can be implemented.

outlook

Now that the Paris Agreement has been adopted, the details for the design of the cooperation mechanisms must be defined. At the 2016 climate conference in Marrakech, the contracting states primarily exchanged their views on the role of Art. 6, and those areas were identified in which there was already agreement and where a common position still had to be found. A central element of this process is the possibility for contracting states to present their position in the form of submissions to the UNFCCC . After a first round of submitting these position papers in the run-up to COP22, a further round of submission was agreed in Marrakech, which is to serve as the basis for the next round of negotiations at the interim negotiations in Bonn. The contributions showed a wide range of views that challenged the negotiations on this topic at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn in November 2017. Although numerous controversies and unanswered questions persist even after the negotiations, all proposals are now in written, structured form, which can be viewed as progress. On this basis, a proposal for a consolidated text is to be drawn up by spring 2018, which could take the negotiations a significant step further.

The time frame available for this is tight: In Marrakech it was decided that the rulebook of the Paris Agreement should be adopted at COP 24 at the end of 2018 (Decison 1 / CP.22, para 12).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UNFCCC: Report of the Conference of the Parties on its twenty-first session, held in Paris from 30 November to 13 December 2015, Addendum, Part two: Action taken by the Conference of the Parties at its twenty-first session, FCCC / CP / 2015/10 / Add.1, 29 January 2016 (No. FCCC / CP / 2015/10 / Add.1). Bonn 2016 (English).
  2. ↑ Hermwille, L .; Kreibich, N .: A price for greenhouse gas emissions - market-based instruments for international climate protection. Ed .: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. Berlin 2016.
  3. ^ Marcu, A .: Issues for Discussion to Operationalize Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development.
  4. ^ A b Obergassel, W .: Shaping the Paris Mechanisms: a summary of submissions on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement . Ed .: Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy. Wuppertal 2016.
  5. ↑ Obergassel, W .; Arens, C., Hermwille, L .; Kreibich, N .; Mersmann, F .; Ott, HE, Wang-Helmreich, H .: Setting Sails for Troubled Waters. An Assessment of the Marrakech Climate Conference (Conference Report) . Ed .: Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy. Wuppertal 2017.
  6. ↑ a b Obergassel, W .: Shaping the Paris Mechanisms Part II: An Update on Submissions on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Ed .: Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy. Wuppertal 2017.
  7. ^ Hood, C .; Briner, G., Rocha, M .: GHG or not GHG: Accounting for Diverse Mitigation Contributions in the Post-2020 Climate Framework. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Energy Agency, 2014, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 30, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in  
  8. ↑ Kreibich, N .; Obergassel, W .: Carbon Markets After Paris - How to Account for the Transfer of Mitigation Results? In: Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy (Ed.): JIKO Policy Paper . 2016th edition. No. 01 . Wuppertal 2016.
  9. ↑ Howard, A .; Chagas, T., Hoogzaad, J .; Hoch, S .: Features and implications of NDCs for carbon markets . Ed .: Swedish Energy Agency, The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature-Conversation, Building and Nuclear Safety, The Federal Office for the Environment. 2017.
  10. ^ Schneider, L-; Broekhoff, D., Cames, M., Füssler, J., La Hoz Theuer, S .: Robust Accounting of International Transfers under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement - Preliminary Findings Discussion Paper. Ed .: UNFCCC. Bonn 2016.
  11. ↑ Lazarus, M .; Kollmuss, A .; Schneider, L .: Single-year mitigation targets: Uncharted territory for emissions trading and unit transfers. Working paper. (PDF) In: No. 2014-1. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2014, accessed June 30, 2017 .
  12. ^ Obergassel, W .: Shaping the Paris Mechanisms Part III - An Update on Submissions on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Ed .: Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy. Wuppertal 2017.