Remote review teams persevere to keep transparency processes on track while review reports showcase progress toward emission reduction targets and climate finance commitments

UN Climate Change News, 10 November 2020 - The sixth round of reviews of developed country climate policies and actions wrapped up last week, marking the end of a busy period for the UNFCCC secretariat. The latest reviews, including Belgium, Denmark, Japan and New Zealand, highlighted a wide range of innovative domestic climate policy actions and broad financial, technical and capacity-building support for developing countries.

Consistent with the findings of earlier reviews this year, the latest results indicate that developed countries are mostly on track to meet their 2020 targets, and where this is not the case, they are finding ways to bridge the gaps. The latest reviews also confirm that developed countries are increasingly focusing their view beyond 2020 and 2030, with many pledging to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Through wide-reaching policies such as cap-and-trade systems and emissions trading, Belgium, Denmark and New Zealand are working to reduce emissions across the largest emitting sectors of their economies, namely energy, while using complementary measures to address outside sectors, such as agriculture.  In Denmark, agriculture measures aim to improve overall sustainability through research and climate-smart approaches. 

Similarly, New Zealand supports international collaboration on agriculture, as host of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). However, in Japan, where industrial, commercial and residential energy sectors are responsible for significant emissions reductions, measures focus heavily on improving energy efficiency.

Complementing these efforts, the latest reviews show a simultaneous push to increase removals through a range of measures to improve forest management and plant new forests.  New Zealand, for example, is aiming to plant one billion trees by 2028, to further enhance carbon sequestration in its forests. 

Recent reviews also confirmed that developed countries have stepped up their efforts to support climate action in developing countries.  For example, to reinforce its more than USD 20 billion in climate finance support over 2017-2018, Japan has provided extensive technology transfer to developing countries via its joint crediting mechanism.  It has further supported 250 capacity-building projects over this period, in response to the requests of its developing country partners.

Commenting on the use of online video conferencing tools to improve the interactivity within the review teams, Kumar further noted: “It was nice to see faces, and not just hear voices.” Lead reviewer Roberto Acosta from Cuba also praised the training programme for new review experts, reflecting that “the training was very effective – new experts were able to contribute in a meaningful way.”

Together with the technical analysis of Biennial Update Reports (BURs) by developing countries, the technical reviews of Biennial Reports by developed countries form the basis of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), the reporting and review system which will cover all countries from 2020 onward.

To date, 30 Biennial Reports have undergone review, with the remaining 11 to be reviewed in 2021.The BR review process will resume in January 2021, with reviews of all 42 developed country Party reports to be completed by April 2021.

The completed review reports will serve as an input to the Multilateral Assessment (MA) sessions, with the first 10 countries scheduled to be assessed at the upcoming Climate Dialogues, 23 November to 4 December 2020.  

Source：UN

Author：UN

Date：November 10, 2020