ECO is happy to see that compliance is high on many priority lists, with many agreeing on the importance of enshrining a compliance mechanism in the core agreement. After all, Parties must want to comply with what they commit to when they commit to it, right? Sure.
While observing the deliberations on compliance, both by itself and in conjunction with differentiation, ECO has come up with a handful of thoughts on the inter-related issues of bindingness, accountability and effectiveness.
The Paris agreement’s effectiveness depends upon it being binding under international law, and also on adequate commitments, participation of major emitters and effective implementation. This prompts the question: how can the new regime ensure that nations respect and comply with these key commitments? ECO notes that compliance mechanisms should help to identify potential cases and causes of non-compliance at an early stage, and then formulate appropriate responses. As such, they promote enforcement across the board while fostering coherence in implementation.
The Kyoto Protocol has this type of compliance mechanism. It involves a facilitative branch to provide support to Parties in their implementation process, as well as an enforcement branch to deter non-compliance. By contrast, the Cancun Agreements disregarded enforcement and instead set up two parallel MRV systems for developed and developing countries. These two systems relied on transparency: reporting, technical review and peer review. Transparency of action has become one of the six core elements of the Durban Platform despite the current widely diverging views on whether the Paris agreement should rely on MRV alone or also include a robust compliance mechanism.
The debate needs to include a discussion of the role of civil society, which can foster compliance by disseminating information, driving awareness on national commitments, promoting participation around meeting goals, and enhancing public scrutiny. Meaningful public participation should be recognised as critical to the effective operation of a compliance regime in the Paris agreement.
Don’t be afraid of the compliance mechanism in the Paris agreement, the only people that need to be are those unwilling to be held to their commitments.