{"id":19140,"date":"2018-12-03T20:54:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T01:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=19140"},"modified":"2025-12-03T12:51:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T17:51:28","slug":"cop-24-transparency-ambition-and-carbon-markets-on-the-paris-rulebook-agenda-in-katowice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2018\/12\/03\/cop-24-transparency-ambition-and-carbon-markets-on-the-paris-rulebook-agenda-in-katowice\/","title":{"rendered":"COP 24: Transparency, ambition and carbon markets on the Paris rulebook agenda in Katowice"},"content":{"rendered":"

See EDF\u2019s COP 24 materials and meet our Katowice team at\u00a0<\/span>edf.org\/cop24.<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the world\u2019s leading climate scientists made clear in a recent\u00a0special report<\/a>, we are in the race of our lives against climate change, and we need to move faster. The Paris Agreement\u2019s rapid entry into force in 2016 broke records, but records are also being broken outside of the UN that emphasize the urgency of action: record wildfires, record temperatures, record storms, record levels of carbon in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

So the stakes are high in Katowice, Poland, as countries meet to finalize the operating manual for the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. In 2016, countries set themselves a deadline of this year to complete their task. Once agreed, the Paris \u201crulebook\u201d will guide them in their efforts to implement the Agreement, including how countries will measure, report and hold each other accountable to their Paris commitments.<\/p>\n

Two interrelated issues will be particularly important for the rulebook discussions in Katowice.<\/p>\n

First is how to operationalize the Paris Agreement\u2019s transparency system; transparency is vital to strengthening ambition and to the success of the agreement itself.<\/p>\n

Second is how that transparency system should link to a new framework for international carbon market cooperation designed to spur the deeper emissions cuts that climate science demands.<\/p>\n

TRANSPARENCY<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Importance of transparency to climate ambition<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ambitious climate action is often evaluated in terms of mitigation commitments. That is certainly crucial. But often overlooked is the value of ambition in transparency, the information sharing and review processes that make it possible to understand the ambition of a mitigation commitment, and whether it is in fact implemented.<\/p>\n

Transparency is the backbone of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement was built on the principle that robust information gathering and reporting will provide countries and subnational actors with the feedback they need to continually improve their mitigation efforts, and provide the essential information citizens need to ratchet up pressure on their governments to do more during each of the agreement\u2019s successive five-year implementation cycles.<\/p>\n

Getting the transparency rules right in Katowice<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Katowice, countries need to agree robust reporting and review requirements applicable to all countries that:<\/p>\n