1. Climate Change Expert Group www.oecd.org/env/cc/ccxg.htm
Helen Plume and Alvaro Umana
Accounting for post-2020
mitigation contributions:
facilitating clarity, transparency
and understanding
CCXG Global Forum
19 March 2014

2. 2 Climate Change Expert Group
Key emerging themes (1 of 3): general
 Diverse nationally determined mitigation contributions will lead
to complexity for accounting, and increase uncertainty ex ante
about expected outcomes
 Different views on the value of contributions framed in non-
GHG terms (should these be translated to GHGs?)
 BAU referenced contributions complicate accounting
 REDD+ framework of reference levels could converge with
post-2020 land-use accounting
 Non-GHG contributions may not be a huge problem, if
expectation is that major emitters will have GHG contributions

3. 3 Climate Change Expert Group
Opt-in to mitigation transfers
 General view that if countries wish to participate in markets,
could opt in to a set of rules
 Eligibility criteria as well as opt-in to rules set?
 Preventing double claiming seen as important, both in ex ante
estimates, and in ex post accounting
 Not the topic here, but unit quality also a key issue
 Allow for evolution of accounting application as capacity
develops
 Lack of clarity about non-market transfers
 Bounded flexibility, i.e. a more “finite” range of contributions
would help

4. 4 Climate Change Expert Group
Timing and sequencing decisions
 Development of accounting rules will happen both prior to, as
part of, with detail to follow after 2015 agreement
 Possible timing: some structure ahead of contributions;
contributions will inform development of accounting; in a
stepwise structured approach
 Need to capture “essential details”
 Priority for Lima is defining information for NDCs as this is
existing mandate. How do we open the parallel discussion on
accounting?
 Difficult to discuss in abstract – will be easier once we see what
contributions are on the table