New article on the relationship between transparency and climate ambition

[Romain Weikmans]

Dear colleagues,

 

Many observers think, believe or hope that the Paris Agreement will reveal new information on Parties' climate efforts, and that increased transparency will stimulate climate ambition.

 

With Prof. Harro van Asselt and J. Timmons Roberts, we just published a new paper in Climate Policy that discusses these issues:

 

 

Transparency requirements under the Paris Agreement and their (un)likely impact on strengthening the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs)

50 free online copies of this article are available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KSJIBQ6S3NAXTZPZN3JQ/full?target=10.1080/14693062.2019.1695571

 

Abstract

How will the Paris Agreement drive countries to address climate change? One expectation of the Agreement is that transparency will stimulate countries to increase the ambition of their pledges by revealing information on Parties’ climate efforts. To this end, the Agreement introduced a new ‘enhanced transparency framework’ (ETF) to report and review information on Parties’ greenhouse gas emissions, progress made in implementing and achieving nationally determined contributions (NDCs), their adaptation actions, and the financial, technological and capacity-building support needed, received and provided to developing country Parties. However, this relationship between transparency and progressive ambition over time remains largely untested. In this article, we first outline several pathways through which increased transparency could potentially lead to increased ambition. These pathways notably depend on the availability of comparable, complete and timely information on the performance of Parties. By reviewing the experience with past and existing transparency arrangements, we identify four types of challenges that will likely pose barriers to the generation of such information by the ETF, and suggest some efforts that might address these challenges to support greater ambition in future rounds of NDCs.

 

Key policy insights

• The potential use of the flexibilities offered to developing countries on some dimensions of the ETF may lead to the generation of incomplete and incomparable information.

• It will be difficult to assess and compare progress made by Parties towards achieving their NDCs due to heterogenous, qualitative and conditional NDCs; the variety of indicators that Parties will choose to track their progress; and to weaknesses in the reporting guidelines on climate action and support.

• Despite ongoing efforts to address this, the information generated by the ETF may be outdated and non-comprehensive due to capacity gaps.

• The apolitical design of the ETF means that it will not lead to judgments, for example on the level of ambition of an NDC, or even on whether a country is achieving its NDC. The ETF is also not equipped to deal with cases of political unwillingness to participate in the ETF itself.

 

 

Best wishes,

Romain

 

__

Dr Romain WEIKMANS
Research Fellow of the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.- FNRS) at the Centre for Studies on Sustainable Development
Lecturer in the Faculty of Science (ULB) and at Sciences Po Lille

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.ac.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

[Jonas Schoenefeld (TYN - Visitor)]

Dear Colleagues,

Following Romain and colleagues' excellent contribution, I would like to share with you a related open access publication on climate policy monitoring, which appeared online today. I believe this is highly complementary and closely links with questions on transparency.

Schoenefeld, J.J.; Schulze, K.; Hildén, M.; Jordan, A.J. (2019). Policy Monitoring in the EU: The Impact of Institutions, Implementation, and Quality. Politische Vierteljahresschrift 60(4). Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11615-019-00209-2 (OPEN ACCESS)

Abstract: Policy monitoring is often seen as a crucial ingredient of policy evaluation, but theoretically informed empirical analyses of real-world policy monitoring practices are still rare. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on climate policy monitoring in the European Union, which has a relatively stringent system of greenhouse gas monitoring but a much less demanding approach to monitoring policies. It explores how institutional settings, policy implementation, and the quality of information may impact the practices and politics of policy monitoring. Drawing on quantitative regression models and qualitative interviews, it demonstrates that policy monitoring has evolved over time and is itself subject to implementation pressures, but also exhibits learning effects that improve its quality. In further developing both everyday policy monitoring practices and academic understanding of them, there is a need to pay attention to their design—specifically, the impact of any overarching rules, the institutional support for implementation, and the criteria governing the quality of the information they deliver. In short, policy monitoring should be treated as a governance activity in its own right, raising many different design challenges.

Best wishes,

Jonas

Dr. Jonas Schoenefeld
Visiting Researcher

Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich Research Park
Norwich
NR4 7TJ
United Kingdom

New Chapter: 'Monitoring Energy Policy' in the Handbook of Energy Governance ein Europe. Available here.

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From: gep...@googlegroups.com <gep...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Romain Weikmans <romain....@gmail.com>
Sent: 27 November 2019 18:14
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Subject: [gep-ed] New article on the relationship between transparency and climate ambition

 

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