Events

On November 10, 2022, the Secretariat of the Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement (PATPA) hosted its 27th Partnership Meeting on the side-lines of the COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The Partnership Meeting is among PATPA’s key global events taking place regularly on the side-lines of UNFCCC negotiations. The meeting serves as an informal forum for networking and exchange of transparency experts and is organized in close coordination and with guidance from the Founding Members of PATPA – Germany, Republic of Korea, and South Africa. This year’s second Partnership Meeting brought together negotiators and practitioners from partner countries and international organizations to discuss the future collaboration on implementing the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), collectively  identify key issues and priorities of transparency support by PATPA and learn about PATPA activities in 2022 and the outlook for 2023.

Mr. Maesela Kekana, Chief Director of the International Climate Change Relations and Reporting at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment of South Africa welcomed all the participants and noted that such fora as the Partnership Meeting provide a space for all partners to come together to better understand and facilitate the implementation of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF). He noted that the transition to the ETF and its full implementation is now the main priority which is also very well in line with the main objective of this year’s COP - moving from negotiations to implementation.    Mr. Kekana further highlighted ,   the following key messages from this year’s Annual Partnership Retreat (APR) of PATPA:

• The implementation of national transparency systems provides countries with benefits beyond merely complying with international reporting requirements, such as enhancing awareness on climate change or generate data relevant to monitor progress towards climate change and other environmental goals of  countries
• The importance of countries’ transition to the ETF in a timely manner in order to achieve readiness for submitting first Biennial Transparency Reports  (BTR) by 2024
• The relevance of reaching a clear decision on the last item outstanding under the ETF, the voluntary review of adaptation information atCOP27.  

Mr. Kekana concluded that the time until December 2024 is very limited with a lot of work still to be done by all Parties. Further, he highlighted the relevance of the ETF   for the success of the Global Stocktake in 2023, which further raises the urgency of timely submission of Biennial Update Reports (BURs) and Biennial Reports (BRs) and in the future of  BTRs.

As a tradition to every Partnership Meeting , the Secretariat informed about the activities conducted by PATPA in 2022 and the outlook for the upcoming year. This was presented by Mr. Dong-hyuk Shin from the Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center (GIR) of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea. In 2022 PATPA organized the APR in September and conducted two Partnership Meetings in Bonn on June 8, 2022, and during the COP27 on November 10, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh. Through its cooperation with the five regional and language groups, the Secretariat organized several virtual and in-person workshops and meetings to promote peer learning and further capacity development. Further, the Climate Helpdesk provided targeted support to four countries and three more requests from countries are currently under review. Improving access to relevant technical and policy guidance remains at the core of PATPA’s work and the PATPA Secretariat continues publishing various knowledge products and respective updates on various topics of interest. These include and are not limited to the following resources:

• BTR Roadmap Guidance Tool (EN, FR, SP, PO)
• Projections of GHG Emissions and Removals
• NDC Handover Checklist 
• Good Practices in GHG Inventories for the Waste Sector
• Update of Biennial Update Report Template
• Update of NDC Accounting Guide
• Good Practice Database Summary Report

In 2023 several publications will be updated or published, including the Updated paper on National Benefits of Climate Reporting (first published in 2018), the guidance document on NDC Progress Indicators, and the Update on the paper on the Paris Agreement Rulebook (first published in 2018). PATPA will continue its global, regional and country engagement for strengthening climate reporting.  For more detailed information on PATPA activities please click on the Link.

After the speeches from South Africa and the Republic of Korea, participants at the Partnership Meeting had the possibility to jointly reflect, under a negotiators’ point of view, on the  difficulties that countries face in implementing the provisions of the ETF. Participants identified  the development of indicators for tracking progress on NDC implementation, reporting on adaptation, implementation of Article 6, e.g. establishing a national register and conducting corresponding adjustments, as well as challenges in understanding the decisions resulting from language barriers. The respective solutions that the group identified cover measures such as the application of the flexibility provisions contemplated in the decisions for developing countries, engaging in peer-learning and exchange with countries on the development of BTRs, and the importance of providing capacity development support in different languages as PATPA is already implementing under its regional and language groups. Specific support for the application of the Common Reporting Tables (CRTs) and Common Tabular Formats (CTFs) was particularly noted.

It is noteworthy that the priority areas for future support of PATPA that the participants identified, clearly reflect the current challenges that hinder the effective implementation of the ETF by countries. Provision of capacity development support on NDC tracking, GHG inventory and MRV of mitigation actions, BTR preparation, as well as adaptation reporting were indicated among the key areas for future transparency support by PATPA.

Mr. Jeremy Schlickenrieder,Policy Advisor on International Climate Policy for the Federal Foreign Office of Germany closed the discussion with appreciation of a very productive and active engagement by all participants.

You can check information about previous Partnership Meetings under this Link.