Environment projects
Climate change
Tackling climate change through the 1992 UN Framework Convention, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the post-2012 regime: promoting verification and implementation
Senior Researcher
Funder
Grants and consultancy contracts from the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD), the World Resources Institute (WRI), and others.
Background
VERTIC's climate change activities support the development and implementation of the UN climate change regime, including the Framework Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and negotiations on future action.
The climate change regime architecture includes procedures for monitoring, reporting, review and compliance. They encompass greenhouse gas emissions estimates, information on policies & measures, and finance. Both developed and developing countries are expected to engage in these procedures, but to differing extents, due to these countries’ varying levels of capacity.
By providing transparency and essential data, these procedures perform an important, central, role in the climate change regime:
-they help to assess both overall and individual party's progress towards treaty goals. And they give countries the opportunity to demonstrate what action they are taking. These features can create the trust and confidence needed for ongoing international efforts.
-the data generated by these systems helps countries to track the implementation and effects of their policies, and to refine them. And when information is shared publicly, countries can learn from one another.
-the viability and credibility of certain climate policy instruments, such as emissions trading schemes, depends on the data provided by robust monitoring systems.
Current focus areas
- examining options for development of the climate change regime architecture
- examining ways to enhance transparency and governance in REDD schemes
- providing assistance on treaty issues
Project activities
- engaging with governments, international organizations, think-tanks, civil society and the private sector
- participating in UNFCCC conferences, and in other events
- carrying out research and analysis, providing advice
- publishing and presenting on findings and recommendations
- running in-country capacity building workshops on treaty development and implementation (e.g. in Africa and Europe).