Negotiations took center stage at the Glasgow Climate Change Conference on Wednesday. After two days of speeches and announcements from world leaders, the meeting returned to a more familiar pace. Deliberations focused on several of the issues that many see as integral to a successful outcome at COP 26.
Highlights included:
- Negotiations on finance, Article 6 (cooperative approaches), and transparency; and
- Earth Information Day and other events around the venue.
Negotiations
Throughout the day, there were negotiations on Article 6 (cooperative approaches). These negotiations aim to set the operational rules needed to ensure robust market and non-market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement. Much of the discussion focused on Article 6.2, which outlines rules around “internationally transferred mitigation outcomes” (ITMOs), credits that one country can buy from another to help meet their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or other climate goals. The discussions sought to ensure that such a market can help countries pursue ambitious emissions reduction goals, but also that the market will protect environmental integrity. There was particular attention to rules aimed at avoiding double counting, that is, when emissions reductions are counted by both the country selling the credit and the country purchasing the credit.
Discussions on finance centered on ex ante transparency (Article 9.5) under the Paris Agreement, or up-front information of how much, and how, developed countries intend to provide climate finance. This is important to help developing countries plan their mitigation and adaptation activities, and also helps developed countries coordinate their climate finance spending. Countries considered this for the first time, with a positive, if initial, exchange of views.
By IISD. Earth Negotiations Bulletin. November 3, 2021.
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