1. Accounting for post-2020 contributions:
facilitating clarity, transparency and
understanding…
ACCOUNTING MATTERS!
Natalie Kushko
Paris, March 2014
www.seia.gov.ua

2. Accounting Matters…
•Chicken and egg concept of accounting and
contributions…
•Agreed accounting rules or accounting elements as a
minimum would facilitate transparent communication
of clear comparable contributions:
Type of contributions
Scope of contributions
Term/validity of contributions
Supporting information for contributions
•GHG vs non-GHG accounting rules should be clarified

3. KP Accounting vs New Agreement
Accounting
•Complexity of predefined GHG-only accounting
rules under Kyoto Protocol
•Competence of UNFCCC secretariat, Parties and
international experts on KP accounting rules
•Resources of Parties and UNFCCC Secretariat
already allocated to KP accounting
•Time required to build new accounting
infrastructure on both international and national
levels

4. UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol
lessons learned
•Mandatory nature of accounting for all of the
Parties with contributions
•Capacity Building and Trainings required for most
of the Parties
•Established and up-and-running accounting
system, with appropriate software, way ahead of
2020
•Continuity of the each Party actions, contributions
and commitments

5. Types of Contributions/Actions
•Legislative: Mitigation and Adaptation – legal enforcement
of wide-range mitigation and adaptation actions on national level.
This could potentially be translated into GHG outcomes ex-post
by the Party
•Outcome-based: GHG and non-GHG – the Party defines its’
contributions in GHG units or in non-GHG actions such as energy
intensity targets, renewable energy targets, etc.
•Regulatory/Market: Tradable on non-tradable – the Party
establish a regulatory framework on national level such as Cap-
and-Trade GHG market, green tariffs, subsidies and fees.
•National and sub-national
•Mixed and cross-linked – when national grids are inter-linked
with another country or it’s a regional grid
5

6. GHG vs Non-GHG
Contributions Accounting
• GHG contributions accounting is well known and understood
worldwide
• Non-GHG or regulatory and legislative contributions would
differ significantly and require an extra effort to make them
comparable and reportable
• Do we need to transfer non-GHG into the GHG and if yes,
who is going to do it and using what type of data ex-post or
ex-ante?
• Separate common accounting framework for non-GHG
would be needed
• Common accounting rules for non-GHG would be
challenging taking into account various national
circumstances

7. “Nationally Determined” or
Baseline Setting
• Each Party should be provided with full flexibility
to decided on the base year, baseline or any
other basis for their economy wide or sector
specific contributions
• Clear and transparent explanations should
accompany such contributions to facilitate the
understanding for the outside world
• National contributions should allow the Party to
continue and built on the economic and social
growth while ideally decoupling the GDP growth
and GHG emission intensity.

8. Continuity of Contributions and Actions
• It is important to recognize all the mitigation
actions undertaken by the Parties and ensure
the continuity of actions by the Parties
throughout the time and agreements under
UNFCCC
• As the actions and contributions by the Parties
are aimed to benefit the atmosphere and
accounting is purely the mean to report and
track those actions – continuity of actions and
contributions must be ensured and at the same
time the continuity of accounting too
• Previous mitigation actions could be reflected in
the baseline or base year periods

9. Thank You
State Environmental Investment
Agency of Ukraine (SEIA)
Natalie Kushko
www.seia.gov.ua