Cement Energy and Environment

... Adaptation how to structure the stocktake, including its format, Within the APA, parties began discussing the inputs, timeline , duration, and output, and its periodic "adaptation communications" they are encouraged to submit under the Paris Agreement, outlining their adaptation needs and/or efforts. They discussed the possible elements of these communications and their potential links to the transparency system and the global stocktake. In parallel, the Adaptation Committee began considering how developing country adaptation efforts will be "recognized," and how to regularly assess the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation efforts and support. Finance The Paris Agreement requires developed countries to provide biennial reports on financial support provided Center or mobilized through "public interventions," and on projected levels of future support. In Marrakech, SBSTA began considering how to account for public finance . Issues include whether the accounting should apply only to flows from developed to developing countries or to broader flows of public finance. Transparency The Paris Agreement establishes an enhanced transparency framework with reporting and review obligations for all parties and "built-in flexibility" for developing countries with limited capacity. This framework is to build on existing UNFCCC transparency processes, which are different for developed and developing countries. A major issue is whether the "flexibility" built into the Paris framework will continue this bifurcated approach - a view advanced by some developing countries and adamantly rejected by developed countries. This promises to be a major point of contention through 2018. A related issue is whether requirements should instead be tailored to different types of NDCs. Global Stocktake The Paris Agreement establishes a "global stocktake" every five years starting in 2023 to assess collective progress toward the agreement's long-term goals. The stocktakes will set the stage for parties' submission of successive rounds of NDCs. In Marrakech, parties began discussing linkage to other elements of the Paris architecture. Implementation and Compliance The Paris Agreement establishes a new 12- member expert committee to "facilitate implementation" and "promote compliance" in a "facilitative" and "nonpunitive" manner. The APA began considering issues including: • The scope of the mechanism - for example, whether it will consider only parties' binding procedural obligations or the achievement of NDCs, which are not binding; • How the mechanism will be triggered - for example, whether a party can ask the committee to examine another party's compliance; and • How parties' varied circumstances and capabilities will be taken into account. Market and Non-Market Mechanisms SBSTA began consideration of two market– related provisions of the Paris Agreement: a requirement that parties using internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs) to meet their NDCs ensure no double counting of transferred units; and the creation of a new mechanism contributing to mitigation and sustainable development that may, like the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, generate tradable emission units. The Paris Agreement also calls for a framework for non– market approaches, and parties began exploring what it could encompass. Ideas included some type of coordination of policies such as feed-in tariffs and fossil fuel subsidy reforms. "Orphan" Issues One of the most contentious items in Marrakech was how to treat a set of so-called orphan issues that are referenced in the Paris Agreement but not assigned to the APA or another body for further consideration. These issues include whether to establish common timeframes for NDCs (parties adopted different timeframes in the first round); any rules around the adjustment by parties of their NDCs; and the development of a new collective finance goal beyond 2025. Unable to agree on any specific direction, parties simply 37