UN Climate Change News, 11 December 2019 – At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, fifteen countries presented the latest information on their climate actions at events called the Facilitative Sharing of Views (
FSV) and Multilateral Assessment (
MA).
Operating since 2014, the MA and FSV processes provide multilateral platforms for countries to share the latest information on their climate actions and engage in a constructive exchange of views. These processes play a crucial role in building trust among countries by enhancing the transparency of climate actions, thereby allowing countries to track progress of implementation and raise ambition levels.
In her opening remarks at the FSV workshop, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, said:
“It is becoming clearer than ever how transparency is central to increasing climate action. Ensuring data is shared openly is vital to our collective climate change efforts. When we see what is working in one country, we are more likely to try it in our own, if it’s applicable. This transparency directly helps inform governments as they increase levels of ambition to tackle climate change.”
Facilitative Sharing of Views
At the 8th session of the FSV workshop, five developing countries - Chile, Ghana, India, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia – shared their achievements and remaining challenges in climate action.
The latest FSV workshop demonstrated strengthened efforts by developing countries in addressing climate change. The discussion highlighted various policies and measures being actively implemented by developing countries, including carbon pricing, low-carbon electricity generation and sustainable forest management.
Countries also noted that developing the biennial update report (
BUR) and participating in the international consultation and analysis (
ICA) have been beneficial to strengthen their capacity in tracking progress of mitigation actions and increase awareness.
COP25 President and Minister of Environment of Chile, Carolina Schmidt, said: “Data and transparency are core elements for driving commitments and increasing ambition.” She also added: “The international consultation and analysis (ICA) and facilitative sharing of views (FSV) have particular importance not only to establish dialogue, but also to understand areas for improvement and approaches to overcome potential gaps.”
See
here for highlights of the presentations made by these five countries.
Multilateral Assessment
Underlining the importance of the MA sessions, Kyriakos Psychas, Head of the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Environment and Energy in Greece, said: “The Multilateral assessment process is a pillar for transparency and robust reporting.”
The sessions showcased the concrete climate actions developed Parties are taking to meet their 2020 emission reduction targets, which are crucial to achieving the goal of the
Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The sessions showed how climate actions are improving as countries integrate lessons learned, and that the portfolio of climate actions continues to expand as countries progress towards meeting their strong political commitments for 2020 and beyond.
Not only the 2020 climate action targets were on show; countries referred to their 2030 targets under the Paris Agreement, demonstrating that the short-term 2020 targets are essential stepping stones to reaching the mid- and longer-term targets.
Some countries also outlined their ambitious goals for carbon neutrality by 2050. For example, Portugal and Switzerland presented their 2050 net zero emissions targets. Eduardo Ferreira Santos, Head of the Department for Climate Change at the Portuguese Environment Agency said: “The next decade is crucial in terms of emissions reduction and climate policy and trajectory that puts us on track to 2050”. See video from Portugal here:
http://bit.ly/2LM7Iww
Novel approaches to tackling transportation emissions were also presented, such as free public transit (Luxembourg) and consideration of including road fuel into emissions trading systems (Austria).