10 COM/ENV/EPOC/IEA/SLT(2021)4
Glossary
NB: The terms bolded in blue throughout the paper contain a definition in this glossary. To ease the reading, the terms are only bolded in blue when they appear for the first time in the Executive Summary, the main body and the Conclusions of the paper.
Term
Definition
Biennial Transparency Report (BTR)
Under the Paris Agreement’s ETF, BTRs will, i.a., track the progress made by each country towards its NDC. The guidelines for contents and form of the BTR are detailed in the MPGs, adopted at COP 24. Parties are required to submit their first biennial transparency report (BTR1) and national inventory report, if submitted as a stand-alone report, per the MPGs, at the latest by 31 December 2024. (UNFCCC, n.d.[1]) BURs are reports submitted by non-Annex I Parties, containing updates of national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventories, including a national inventory report and information on mitigation actions, needs and support received. Such reports provide updates on actions undertaken by a Party to implement the Convention, including the status of its GHG emissions and removals by sinks and the actions to reduce emissions or enhance sinks. Guidelines regarding BURs were adopted at COP 17 in decision 2/CP.17. (UNFCCC, n.d.[2]) CERs are generated from a project activity in a non-Annex I country registered under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism. CERs can be used by Annex I countries to meet their mitigation commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. (UNFCCC, n.d.[3]) The Compilation and Accounting Database (CAD) records, for compliance purposes, the review of total GHG emissions from sources covered in Annex A of the Kyoto Protocol and any outcome from the review of LULUCF activities. The CARP (as laid out in draft CMA decisions on Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement) is the overarching information platform that enables transparency on Article 6 activities, supports the technical review process, and allows the secretariat to publish all information submitted Parties in relation to Article 6.2. The CMA oversees the implementation of the Paris Agreement and takes decisions to promote its effective implementation. All States that are Parties to the Paris Agreement are represented at the CMA, while States that are not Parties participate as observers. (UNFCCC, n.d.[4]) The CMP oversees the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and takes decisions to promote its effective implementation. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the CMP. (UNFCCC, n.d.[5])
Biennial Update Report (BUR)
Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) Compilation and Database (CAD)
Accounting
Centralized Accounting and Reporting Platform (CARP) Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) Conference of the Parties (COP)
Corresponding adjustments
Cooperative approaches
Unclassified
The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements. (UNFCCC, n.d.[6]) Decision 1/CP.21, paragraph 36 requests the SBSTA to develop and recommend guidance under Article 6.2 including “to ensure that double counting is avoided on the basis of a corresponding adjustment by Parties” (UNFCCC, 2016[7]). Furthermore, paragraph 77.d of the MPGs for the ETF further notes that Parties participating in co-operative approaches shall also provide “an emissions balance reflecting the level of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks covered by its NDC adjusted on the basis of corresponding adjustments undertaken by effecting an addition for internationally transferred mitigation outcomes first-transferred/transferred and a subtraction for internationally transferred mitigation outcomes used/acquired, consistent with decisions adopted by the CMA on Article 6” (Annex to decision 18/CMA.1 III.C, paragraph 77.d) (UNFCCC, 2019[8]). How exactly this is to be achieved has not yet been decided. Cooperative approaches are referenced in Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, which outlines how Parties are to comply with guidance provided by the CMA when engaging in “cooperative approaches that involve the
