"Building the Climate Change Regime".

The main points highlighted in “Building the Climate Change Regime” By World Resources Institute and UNEP, 2011. are given below:

·

• According to UNEP estimates approximately 44 giga tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO₂e) in 2020 would be consistent with a “likely” chance of limiting global warming to 2°C but under business-as-usual projections emissions could reach 56 GtCO₂e in 2020.

• Options within the UNFCCC to increase ambition beyond existing commitments are covering additional greenhouse gases, forcings, and sectors, strengthening accounting rules for emissions and emission reductions, implementing periodic scientific review mechanism agreed to at Cancun and a final possibility is to leverage the reference to human rights to generate greater ambition.

• Proposals for auxiliary strategies can be categorized in three approaches:

• Multilateral strategies: including maximizing coordination among U.N. agencies and international agreements.
• Plurilateral and bilateral strategies: involving a limited number of countries such as the Major Economies Forum, the G20, or issue-specific “clubs”.
• Domestic-level strategies: Mobilizing key ministries (e.g., defense, finance, and agriculture) as well as civil society groups.

• Citizens would become more active players and drivers of change through enhanced access to participation in environmental decisions through litigation, changes in consumption and lifestyle patterns.

• Two approaches could be applied for sharing the mitigation effort under the UNFCCC:

• Dividing the mitigation effort based on capabilities e.g., GDP per capita.
• Dividing the mitigation effort based on a given country’s contribution to the problem evaluated based on historical responsibility, where those that have contributed or will contribute to the problem are charged with addressing it.

• Alternative for tracking country performance on mitigation:

• Use tools within the UNFCCC as it has been a central platform to track the performance of Parties by calling for the enhancement of existing procedures and the creation of new ones.
• Use tools outside the UNFCCC. A number of tools and institutions outside the UNFCCC can play a complementary role or can act as an independent source of information.

Posted By:  

Ramesh Kumar Jalan, Ph.D.

Resource Person & Moderator

Climate Change Community, Solution Exchange,

United Nations Development Programme

New Delhi, India