10 June 2014: Over 40 experts from International Climate Initiative (IKI) projects gathered for a workshop to discuss the information necessary for, and the potential elements of, intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs). The event served as a platform for sharing participants’ experiences in working with their partner countries and building a common understanding of INDCs.

Held on 10 June 2014, in Bonn, Germany, as the intersessional UNFCCC negotiations were taking place, the workshop also provided an opportunity to reflect on experiences in low carbon development strategies (LCDS), nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) and measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), with an eye to finding success factors that may be relevant for the INDC process.

According to IKI, workshop participants concluded that the INDC process can help countries piece together their various climate change initiatives in conjunction with calculating emissions. They stressed that for the process to be effective, resulting in further, meaningful climate actions, it will require strong political backing and broad stakeholder buy-in.

Given the inevitable diversity among INDCs, the workshop stressed that timely, comprehensive and upfront information will be very important. Participants further found that some parties are hesitant to put forward INDCs because of doubts related to the reliability of hastily-defined INDCs and concerns that INDCs may automatically turn into commitments.

The workshop summary report indicates that with parties’ starting positions and capabilities varying widely, the mechanism should provide flexibility in the information and elements required. In addition, allowing countries to adjust their commitments will provide a means of raising ambition.

The workshop was part of the series titled ‘Developing Knowledge on the Building Blocks of a Global Mitigation Architecture,’ which is organized twice a year by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). BMUB invites experts from a portion of IKI projects to each workshop. [BMUB – IKI Press Release] [BMUB – IKI Workshop Summary]