Back Back to Knowledge Hub

Report from Climate Change Conference in Bangkok (September 4-9, 2018)

17 September 2018

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met for a second time this year in Bangkok from September 9 to 14 for an additional week of negotiations ahead of COP 24 in Katowice, Poland in December where they  are expected to adopt the guidelines for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. In advance of the COP, Parties had requested further time to exchange views and develop draft options for guidance on many critical issues including reporting and review procedures under the enhanced transparency framework, and information and accounting for NDCs.

Discussions progressed well with regards to technical details, and there are now draft options for guidance on reporting national inventories; reporting of information to track progress on implementation and achievement of NDCs; reporting of support; technical expert review; and multilateral consideration.  While negotiations in Katowice won’t be easy, Parties are in a good position to finalize the rules for transparency then.

Following the negotation session, a GHG Inventory System Training Workshop was held where the Initiative for Climate Action Transparecy (ICAT) was invited to present on the guidance and methods for assessing the impacts of policies and actions. The event was organized by the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) in collaboration with Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco) and Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO), and participants included governmental and non-governmental representatives from countries throughout Asia who came to learn more about the IPCC guidance and other methods which will be critical for successful achievement of the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement.

During the ICAT presentation, participants learned about the initiative and its objectives, what type of guidance is available in the ICAT toolbox, and how the methods may be applied to a variety of policies and actions to better understand their GHG effects as well as their sustainable development impacts.  Many of the countries represented in the workshop include climate actions in their NDCs, and the ICAT guidance may be a practial tool to support these countries in tracking progress on implementation and acheivement of their actions.