New article on state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements
Romain Weikmans
Dear GEP-ED colleagues,
I would like to share with you a new article (available in open access in Climate Policy) on state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2021.1895705
This article relies on a new database (that we have constructed) that may be of interest for future research to help explain observed patterns of compliance.
Assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements: ‘Transparency Adherence Indices’ and their research and policy implications
Romain Weikmans & Aarti Gupta
Abstract: 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.
Best regards,
Romain
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Dr Romain WEIKMANS
Research Fellow of the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.- FNRS) at the Centre for Studies on Sustainable Development
Part-Time Lecturer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and at Sciences Po Paris
Vice-Chair of the Working Group "Energy-Climate" of the Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development
Université Libre de Bruxelles/Free University of Brussels
Department of Geosciences, Environment and Society
Institute for Environmental Management and Land Use Planning
Centre for Studies on Sustainable Development
Postal Address: Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50 CP130/03, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Office: Avenue Antoine Depage 30, 1050 Brussels, Building D, 6th Floor, DB.6.248 (By Appointment Only)
Email: romain....@ulb.be
Webpage: http://igeat.ulb.ac.be/en/equipe/details/person/romain-weikmans/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RomainWeikmans
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Romain_Weikmans