Why operational SD provisions in Article 6 are important

There are four reasons why operational sustainable development provisions in post-2020 mechanisms are important:

1. Public acceptance of market mechanisms depends on strong safeguards and real sustainable development benefits;
2. Sustainable development is a primary lever for raising climate ambition. The assessment and the recognition of sustainable development benefits of mitigation actions is very often a prerequisite to unlock host country ownership and ensure, these actions receive long-term support;
3. Quantifying and valuing sustainable development impacts can unlock much needed private sector funding and can lead to higher market value of units;
4. International guidance on sustainable development is already available (Agenda 2030) and endorsed by 193 countries; synergies can be derived from aligning sustainable development approaches in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement with global and national level Agendas 2030.

Text Recommendations for SD provisions in Article 6

In 2018, as input to the COP24 in Katowice a position paper and detailed text proposals were developed by the SDI team and presented to Parties and stakeholders during workshops and a series of roundtable discussions. View previous text proposals>>

The outcome of COP24 indicated that SD did not feature prominently in the draft texts of the implementing decisions to Article 6. The text on Article 6 included only minimum SD provisions that did not reflect any significant change from the Kyoto Protocol. In spite of the Paris Agreement Art. 6 'shall requirements' to promote SD, operationalizing the SD provisions was not a priority for all Parties.

However, with respect to cooperative approaches of Article 6.2 the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement) (§77d) now mandates all countries to provide information on how these approaches promote sustainable development, consistent with decisions adopted for Article 6. Noting the decision was taken ‘without prejudice’, hence the possibility for Article 6 rules to go beyond. On this background, the SDI has updated text proposals towards COP25 as shown below.

The SDI recommends the following elements in future text provisions:

Article 6.2 – Reporting:

• Ex-ante assessment and reporting of expected SD contributions of the collaboration;
• Periodic ex-post assessment and reporting of the SD contributions;
• Development of tools and approaches adapted to various types of collaboration (project level, sectoral level, policy level) for voluntary use to:
  • Support SD assessment and reporting towards nationally determined goals and priorities of host Parties;
  • Avoid/mitigate negative impacts.

Article 6.4 - Roles and responsibilities:

Participation requirements for host Parties:

• The confirmation of the host Party based on information made publicly available that the activity fosters sustainable development;
• Facilitative role of the Supervisory Body mandated to:
  • Foster knowledge exchange and support development of tools and approaches (for voluntary use) to facilitate SD assessment and reporting (ex-post, ex-ante) towards nationally determined goals and priorities of host Parties;
  • Enable the development of nationally determined approaches for stakeholder consultations on sustainable development, a grievance mechanism and do-no-harm safeguards informed by international best practice.

For more information on the rationale for the recommendations proposed for COP24, see the full position paper published in the Carbon Mechanisms Review #3 October 2018>>

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