COP29 and the Politics of Transparency: Four Crucial Issues to Watch

Key Highlights: 2024 is an important year for transparency in the international climate regime. By the end of the year, the first biennial transparency reports (BTRs) are due under the Paris Agreement’s new enhanced transparency framework. At COP29 there will be much buzz around these new transparency reports. But there are also other important transparencyContinue reading “COP29 and the Politics of Transparency: Four Crucial Issues to Watch”

TRANSGOV NWO-Impact Explorer Project

An Academic-Practitioner Dialogue on the sidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) June negotiating session in Bonn, 2024   The TRANSGOV team was in Bonn in June 2024 to organize an academic-practitioner dialogue bringing together climate transparency negotiators from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to advance the aims of our recently awarded NWO-impactContinue reading “TRANSGOV NWO-Impact Explorer Project”

Climate transparency at COP28: What is (back/soon-not-anymore) on the agenda?

Various transparency related negotiations and events are on the agenda for COP28.  In this blogpost I provide a brief overview of four key agenda items. With the transition to the enhanced transparency framework in 2024 around the corner, negotiations at this COP provide an opportunity to shape the new and revisit the old.   1.   Continue reading “Climate transparency at COP28: What is (back/soon-not-anymore) on the agenda?”

Transparency at COP27: Five key outcomes

Before COP27 we published this blogpost outlining 5 key processes related to transparency to follow.  This blogpost reflects on the key outcomes. 1.    The voluntary review of adaptation (and loss and damage) information: agreed! As we reported in our pre-COP27 blog, under current transparency rules, there is no provision for technical review of information submittedContinue reading “Transparency at COP27: Five key outcomes”

Transparency at COP27: follow these five processes    

COP27 is around the corner. What to expect for transparency negotiations? At first glance, it may seem like intensive transparency negotiations are now a thing of the past. The rules for the Enhanced Transparency Framework of the Paris Agreement are described by the Modalities, procedures and guidelines from Katowice and the reporting guidance from Glasgow.Continue reading “Transparency at COP27: follow these five processes    “

Capacity building for climate transparency: A database and dashboard of CBIT projects

Capacity building for climate transparency is generally understood as a neutral means to ensure all countries have the capacity to report information to the UNFCCC. However, an earlier TRANSGOV article problematized this proposition and highlighted that capacity building may in practice steer the type of transparency generated by countries and influence politically contested discussions overContinue reading “Capacity building for climate transparency: A database and dashboard of CBIT projects”

An assessment of capacity building for climate transparency under the UNFCCC

This blog post is based on the recently published article in Climate Policy by Susanne Konrad, Max van Deursen & Aarti Gupta Elaborate transparency systems are now at the core of the 2015 Paris Agreement, with the assumption that this will enhance accountability, trust, and greater climate policy ambition. With transparency becoming ever more central, much attentionContinue reading “An assessment of capacity building for climate transparency under the UNFCCC”

Transparency of (in)Action? Eight key matters to follow in the COP26 transparency negotiations

COP26 is just around the corner. What to expect? Key negotiation items on the agenda are common timeframes for NDCs, market mechanisms, climate finance and transparency. Indeed, transparency is one of the most contentious negotiation items, with talks on this item closed to observers at the preceding intersessional session in May-June 2021. This blogpost outlinesContinue reading “Transparency of (in)Action? Eight key matters to follow in the COP26 transparency negotiations”

New research out: assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements

In a recent scientific publication for the journal Climate Policy, Romain Weikmans and Aarti Gupta study an essential question about the relationship between transparency and climate ambition, namely whether countries adhere to the mandatory transparency requirements of the UNFCCC. By studying the expert reviews and analyses that the UNFCCC provides about country transparency reports, WeikmansContinue reading “New research out: assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements”

Transparency Adherence Indices: A first step in assessing country compliance with global climate transparency requirements

This blog post is based on the recently published article in Climate Policy by Romain Weikmans & Aarti Gupta One of the few legally binding obligations of the 2015 Paris Agreement is for countries to be transparent to each other about what they are doing with regard to climate change. This can include sharing information about domesticContinue reading “Transparency Adherence Indices: A first step in assessing country compliance with global climate transparency requirements”