COM/ENV/EPOC/IEA/SLT(2021)4
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2. Article 6 reporting and interplay with Article 13 In the context of the international climate change negotiations, the MPGs and draft A6.2 guidance have been or are being discussed under different SBSTA agenda items, in most cases by different negotiators. At the same time, several crosscutting issues and informational elements are captured under both reporting guidelines. For example, some of the informational elements included in draft A6.2 guidance shall be included in Parties’ Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) (see 5. Annex A for a detailed overview of reporting requirements under both Articles). Hence, it would be important that the reporting requirements under Article 13 and Article 6 are harmonised and complementary to the extent possible. This is reflected in the SBSTA Chair’s summary prepared to reflect the June 2021 informal consultations on Article 6, which recalls a point made during the discussion, namely that “Article 6 needs to be compatible with Article 13” (UNFCCC SBSTA, 2021[23]). To ensure that Parties’ voluntary participation in Article 6 meets transparency and environmental integrity requirements, some specific information on Article 6 cooperation is needed. This will thus lead to additional reporting requirements on Parties. Therefore, to ensure that reporting remains as transparent and as complete as possible while also easing countries’ reporting burden, it is worth exploring how the reporting under Article 6.2 and its interplay with reporting provisions under Article 13 would work in practice. This exercise could help identify opportunities for improving the flow of information to be reported and establish a reporting infrastructure that could help Parties avoid reporting the same elements more than once. Streamlining the reporting of information will also enhance the efficiency of the corresponding review process. In this light, this section provides an overview of outstanding practical issues that relate to the timing, sequencing, and content of information to be reported under draft A6.2 guidance, namely initial report, annual information, and regular information. Where relevant, this section explores the interplay between elements of this information and similar or crosscutting information to be reported under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement. The section highlights, for each outstanding issue, whether further clarity would be needed in draft A6.2 guidance, whether these issues could be addressed in future work on Article 6.2 under the SBSTA4 or whether these are operational issues that can be resolved as Parties proceed in the implementation phase of the ETF and Article 6.2 reporting.
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As further explored in Annex A, paragraph 3 of draft A6.2 guidance requests the SBSTA to develop, inter alia, outlines for the information required to chapter IV of the guidance (i.e. Reporting). This can imply that any further refinement to any A6.2 guidance if agreed by Parties at COP26, can be undertaken as part of future work under the SBSTA.
Unclassified
