Context

• Katowice climate negotiations( COP 24)  have yielded a disciplined rulebook for the Paris Agreement (PA).

What the rulebook says?

• PA seeks to keep the global average temperatures below 2°C from pre-industrial times.
•  It specifies what steps countries need to take in the fight against climate change.
•  The rulebook prescribes how to do those things, and how each of them would be measured and verified.
•  For instance, Paris Agreement states every country must have a climate action plan and it should be periodically updated and submitted to the UN climate body. The rulebook elaborates it.
•  PA asks every member nation to submit information about their greenhouse gas emissions every two years.
•  The rulebook specifies which gases to measure, what methodologies and standards to apply while measuring, kinds of information to be included in their submissions.
•  The rulebook says what kinds of financial flows such as loans, concessions, grants etc. can be classified as climate finance.
•  It holds the operational details of the Paris Agreement. It makes the rulebook lengthy.
•  The rulebook is a dynamic document, meaning new rules can be added, or existing rules amended.

How it will regulate PA?

•  The rulebook seek to instill discipline in a process governed by ‘national determination’.
•  Under the Paris Agreement, states have complete autonomy on the nature and type of climate actions they choose to take.
•  However, the rules now require them to provide detailed information of their actions.
•  It adds more details into the obligations of states identified in the Paris Agreement and make them meaningful.
•  Earlier, Paris Agreement contained a general obligation for developed countries to report biennially on their mobilization of climate finance.
•  Now the rules identify 15 specific pieces of information that states should submit in these reports.
•  The rules operationalize the key processes established by the Paris Agreement,
•  Transparency framework- It states to report on indicators for measuring progress in achieving their targets.
•  Global stocktake
•  Compliance regime- The rules seek to infuse accountability and facilitate implementation.

When ‘Compliance Regime’ will intervene?

•  The rulebook set up a compliance committee to consider cases where countries have breached binding procedural obligations.
•  So, if a state does not submit a contribution every five years or a developed country does not submit its report on provision of finance, the committee will step in.
•  The committee can also step in if there are significant and persistent inconsistencies in reporting.
•  It can do this only with the consent of the state concerned.
•  The committee is empowered to assist the defaulting state in identifying and addressing the challenges to implementation.
•  It is also authorized to identify systemic challenges in compliance and implementation faced by many parties.

Which issues are still left out?

•  Article 6 of the Paris Agreement talks about setting up a market mechanism for trading of carbon emissions. However, the countries couldn’t agree on this matter.
•  Existing emission trading system established under the Kyoto Protocol is still ineffective.
•  A carbon market allows countries or industries, to earn carbon credits for the emission reductions they make in excess of what is required of them.
•  These carbon credits can be traded to the highest bidder in exchange of money.
•  However, many countries walked out of the Kyoto Protocol and they didn’t feel compelled to meet the targets.
•  Developing countries like China, India, and Brazil have accumulated huge amounts of unused carbon credits.
•  In this Katowice meeting, they asked unused carbon credits should be considered valid in the new market mechanism.
•  But compromises were not done in this meeting.

Challenges Ahead

•  The rulebook fails to secure a financial commitment from the developed nations after 2025 for vulnerable island nations.
•  It does not provide a governance framework for the carbon market that is sought to be created under the Paris Pact.
•  It doesn’t provide a solid path to limit the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.