Performing accountability: face-to-face account-giving in multilateral climate transparency processes

Gupta, Aarti; Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, S.I.S.E.; Kamil, Nila; Ching, Amy; Bernaz, Nadia

doi:10.1080/14693062.2020.1855098

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Thus, the BURs are analysed (rather than reviewed) by a team of technical experts, in consultation with the concerned Party, and Parties then participate in a 'facilitative exchange of views' (rather than a multilateral assessment) although the procedural elements are the same. 2 These differences in terminology signal persisting political contestation around whether or not transparency requirements should be distinct for developed and developing country Parties (Gupta et al, 2021).…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements: ‘Transparency Adherence Indices’ and their research and policy implications

Weikmans

Gupta

2021

Climate Policy

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Transparency is increasingly central to multilateral climate governance. In this article, we undertake one of the first systematic assessments of the nature and extent of compliance with transparency requirements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Extensive resources are now being devoted to setting up national and international transparency systems that aim to render visible what individual countries are doing with regard to climate change. It is widely assumed that such transparency is vital to securing accountability, trust and thereby also enhanced climate actions from all. Yet, whether transparency lives up to this transformative promise remains largely unexamined. We generate a first systematic overview here of the nature and extent of country engagement with and adherence to UNFCCC transparency requirements. Drawing on extensive primary documents, including national reports and technical expert assessments of these reports, we generate 'Transparency Adherence Indices' for developed and developing country Parties to the UNFCCC. Our results reveal wide variations in adherence to mandatory reporting requirements and no clear general pattern of improvement since 2014. Our Indices help to illustrate trends and highlight knowledge gaps around the observed adherence patterns. This is timely since the 2015 Paris Agreement calls for an 'enhanced transparency framework' to be implemented by 2024 that builds on existing UNFCCC transparency systems. We conclude with identifying a research and policy agenda to help explain observed patterns of adherence, and emphasize the need for continued scrutiny of assumed links between transparency and climate action. Key policy insights:. The UNFCCC and its 2015 Paris Agreement call for ever greater climate transparency from all countries. . We develop 'Transparency Adherence Indices' that reveal frequency of engagement and adherence to reporting requirements of both developed and developing countries. . Our findings reveal high engagement in transparency arrangements by developed countries and variable engagement from developing countries. . We question what variable adherence to reporting requirements actually signifies, given how such adherence is assessed within UNFCCC technical expert reports. . Further research to explain the range of observed adherence patterns is important, in light of the Paris Agreement's requirements for enhanced transparency from all. . The assumed link between enhanced transparency and climate action needs further analysis.

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Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements: ‘Transparency Adherence Indices’ and their research and policy implications

Weikmans

Gupta

2021

Climate Policy

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“…These arrangements aim to build trust and confidence that each Party is taking necessary steps toward the implementation of its contribution toward the UN climate regime's global long-term goals. In this way, the transparency and MRV system is generally believed to be a "precondition for enhanced accountability" (Gupta et al 2021). The transparency arrangements under the UN climate regime have evolved over time to reflect experience in implementation and differences in the nature and scope of the treaties under the UN climate regime.…”

Section: Implementation Of the Transparency Arrangements Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The multilateral peer considerations (i.e., the MA and FSV) under the UNFCCC as platforms to share experience, exchange of information among Parties, and enable collective learning offer breadth of lessons from implementation of the UN climate regime's transparency arrangements, climate action and support, and increasingly the implementation and achievement of NDCs (even though no legal requirements yet exist to that end under the convention). 7 Following an analysis of the FSV, (Gupta et al 2021) found that the FSV sessions go "beyond being a mere ritualist 'performance' of accountability. Instead, they facilitate learning.…”

Section: Challenges and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward More Effective Implementation of the Paris Agreement: Learning from 30 years of experience

Dagnet¹,

Simeonova²,

Cogswell³

et al. 2021

WRIPUB

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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.

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“…International assessment and review-which hinges on data availability-can foster transparency, trust, and accountability among different actors (Asselt, Pauw, and Saelen 2015). Transparency is a widely assumed precondition for creating mutual trust within the multilateral processes and enhance accountability of the individual actor's progress towards meeting their climate pledges (Gupta and van Asselt 2019;Mason 2020;Weikmans et al, 2020;Gupta et al, 2021). In this paper, we focus on all processes, mechanisms and tools related to "climate change accounting and reporting" (Gulluscio et al, 2020), which can apply to greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories for the purposes of complying with regulations or international frameworks like the Paris Agreement, or voluntary management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nested Climate Accounting for Our Atmospheric Commons—Digital Technologies for Trusted Interoperability Across Fragmented Systems

et al. 2022

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The Paris Agreement’s decentralized and bottom-up approach to climate action poses an enormous accounting challenge by substantially increasing the number of heterogeneous national, sub-national, and non-state actors. Current legacy climate accounting systems and mechanisms are insufficient to avoid information asymmetry and double-counting due to actor heterogeneity and fragmentation. This paper presents a nested climate accounting architecture that integrates several innovative digital technologies, such as Distributed Ledger Technology, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, and concepts such as nested accounting and decentralized identifiers to improve interoperability across accounting systems. Such an architecture can enhance capacity building and technology transfer to the Global South by creating innovation groups, increasing scalability of accounting solutions that can lead to leapfrogging into innovative systems designs, and improving inclusiveness.

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Performing accountability: face-to-face account-giving in multilateral climate transparency processes

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

Assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements: ‘Transparency Adherence Indices’ and their research and policy implications

Assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements: ‘Transparency Adherence Indices’ and their research and policy implications

Toward More Effective Implementation of the Paris Agreement: Learning from 30 years of experience

Nested Climate Accounting for Our Atmospheric Commons—Digital Technologies for Trusted Interoperability Across Fragmented Systems

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