Events

On June 06, 2024, the Secretariat of the Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement (PATPA) hosted its 29th Partnership Meeting on the side-lines of the SB60 in Bonn, Germany.

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, the Republic of Korea, and South Africa. This year’s Partnership Meeting brought together negotiators and practitioners from partner countries and international organizations to discuss the way forward until the first BTR submission at the end of the year. 

In her introductory remarks, Ms. Ursula Fuentes, Head of the Division Climate Diplomacy, International Climate Policy and UNFCCC at the Federal Foreign Office (AA) of Germany noted that the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) has become operational this year with the due submissions of Parties’ First Biennial Transparency Reports (BTR) by December 31st. She particularly welcomed the strong commitment of this year’s COP29 presidency, Azerbaijan, in supporting developing country parties in the timely submission of their BTRs. She also emphasized that BTRs are an essential monitoring tool for policy makers as a key input for NDCs.

Mr. Maesela Kekana, Deputy Director-General for Climate Change and Air Quality, at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) of South Africa, highlighted the PATPA as a key driver of peer-to-peer learning, political dialogue on enhanced transparency and for strengthening networks and trust between participants.

Ms. Sandra Motshwanedi, Acting Director in International Reporting on Climate Change, Climate Change and Air Quality, at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) of South Africa summarized the main results from the Global BTR Dialogue this May in Brussels, organized by PATPA.  One of the key messages she mentioned was to keep BTRs simple. She reminded participants of the importance of submitting their first BTR on time, fulfilling all mandatory requirements, but doing so with a view that the first BTR does not need to be perfect and can be improved over time. A summary of further key messages from the Global BTR Dialogue can be found here. 

Mr. Donghyuk Shin, Researcher at the International Cooperation Unit, Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center (GIR) of the Republic of Korea, pointed out the critical link between NDCs and BTRs in his opening remarks, stressing that the BTR’s greenhouse gas scenarios should be incorporated in the NDC update. Furthermore, he asked Parties to aspire for more ambitious and realistic NDC updates informed by their BTRs. 

After the opening remarks, a gallery walk followed, guided by six open questions regarding BTR submission. In the following some of the main insights from the gallery walk will be presented. 

Participants expressed the ambition that BTR results should inform the next NDCs, and enhance climate action in general, for example by identifying qualitative and quantitative indicators from the Greenhouse Gas Inventories.

To align BTR and NDC processes, participants proposed to use projections from BTRs to inform NDCs as well as to align expert teams responsible for the preparation of the documents. Participants noted that the focus of the BTR should be on the mandatory chapters. However, participants also highlighted “support needed and received” as a particularly relevant BTR chapter for the NDC update.

Some participants noted that amidst critical submissions by the end of 2024, some countries will have elections which pose a political threat to the timely submission. In order to minimize this threat, participants proposed to involve political leaders from the beginning of the BTR development and to keep the language simple and translating the technical content of a BTR into a language easily understood to avoid political hindrances.

In this regard, high expectations were expressed for the 29th COP in Baku in 2024. Participants raised the hope that as many countries as possible will submit their BTRs on time. To achieve this, participants pointed out that trainings on specific chapters of the BTR as well as on the electronic reporting tool will be needed, and that they should continue to engage in experience-sharing with other countries. 

For further questions, please contact Ms. Simone Gotthardt (@email).