• Recently, COP24 annual UN climate conference concluded in Katowice, Poland. Countries almost settled on for putting the 2015 Paris agreement into practice. This includes how governments will measure, report on and verify their emissions-cutting efforts, a key element because it ensures all countries are held to proper standards and will find it harder to wriggle out of their commitments. This global deal is meant for climate actions by all the countries across the globe post-2020.

Important highlights of the summit:

• The Katowice package includes guidelines that will operationalize the transparency framework. It sets out how countries will provide information about their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that describe their domestic climate actions. This information includes mitigation and adaptation measures as well as details of financial support for climate action in developing countries.
• Besides transparency framework, the Katowice package also includes guidelines that relate to the process for establishing new targets on finance from 2025 onwards to follow-on from the current target of mobilizing $100 billion per year from 2020 to support developing countries.
• It also includes how to conduct the Global Stocktake (GST) of the effectiveness of climate action in 2023 and how to assess progress on the development and transfer of technology.
• To keep everyone in check, the rules will also contain a compliance mechanism, which means that countries that don't submit their reports on time will face an inquiry.
• The new regulations are "flexible" for developing countries, meaning they can sign up to the rules at a later date.
• One of the biggest rows at this meeting was over a key scientific report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A group of countries including Saudi Arabia, US, Kuwait and Russia refused to "welcome" the IPCC study.
• Most countries felt that acknowledging the science was critical at this conference. Their efforts did finally ensure that the IPCC was recognised - but many felt it was a token effort.
• There was a presence of energised young people in far greater numbers than I have ever seen them at a COP before.
• The global rules are important to ensure that each tonne of emissions released into the atmosphere is accounted for. In this way, progress towards the emission limitation goals of the Paris Agreement can be accurately measured. Currently, climate actions of rich nations for pre-2020 period are being guided by the Kyoto Protocol.

About COP 24:

• Since the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in 1992, parties have met at least once a year to further the implementation of the Convention. This year, the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change-- COP 24—was held in Poland. This conference confirmed the third anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement, which was agreed to in 2015.