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The gap between the internationally agreed climate objectives and tangible emissions reductions looms large. We explore how the supreme decisionmaking body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Conference of the Parties (COP), could develop to promote more effective climate policy. We argue that promoting implementation of climate action could benefit from focusing more on individual sectoral systems, particularly for mitigation. We consider five key governance functions of international institutions to discuss how the COP and the sessions it convenes could advance implementation of the Paris Agreement: guidance and signal, rules and standards, transparency and accountability, means of implementation, and knowledge and learning. In addition, we consider the role of the COP and its sessions as mega-events of global climate policy. We identify opportunities for promoting sectoral climate action across all five governance functions and for both the COP as a formal body and the COP sessions as conducive events. Harnessing these opportunities would require stronger involvement of

Since the early 1990s, countries have been working together under the United Nations to develop a framework for international action on climate change. This cooperation has led to rules, principles, institutions, and procedures to guide and support global action. Most notably, countries have adopted the UNFCCC and have focused on its implementation, including through two operational agreements: the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Since Parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015, they have focused significant attention to finalizing and negotiating the rules, procedures, modalities, and operational guidance that govern implementation of the agreement. Parties are turning their attention to the action and support that will be needed to fully implement the Paris Agreement’s obligations and its Rulebook. The objective of the paper is to provide recommendations for strengthening the architecture and implementation of the Paris Agreement. The paper does so by drawing on experiences under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, including the existing transparency framework, Talanoa Dialogue, and the Kyoto Protocol’s compliance committee, and by considering the unique impact that science and the work of the IPCC, equity, and leadership have each had on implementation efforts.

This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected papers on climate change issues that have been prepared for the OECD/IEA Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG). The CCXG (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) is a group of government delegates from OECD and other industrialised countries. The aim of the group is to promote dialogue and enhance understanding on technical issues in the international climate change negotiations. CCXG papers are developed in consultation with experts from a wide range of developed and developing countries, including those participating in the regular Global Forum on the Environment organised by the CCXG. The full papers are generally available only in English.The opinions expressed in these papers are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OECD, the IEA or their member countries, or the endorsement of any approach described herein.