May 2015: The Secretariats of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have released two papers, titled ‘Strategic Review: Implications of Proposals to Date for Mitigation Contributions’ and ‘Assessing Options to Increase Climate Support.’

The Strategic Review paper focuses on three proposals in the Geneva negotiating text produced by the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC/ADP/2015/1). Specially, the paper addresses proposals contained under the headings “strategic review of implementation,” “aggregate ambition assessment” and “enhanced ambition mechanism.”

The paper examines key elements of these proposals and considers how they might apply to mitigation contributions or the mitigation component of countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs). In particular, the paper considers the likely effectiveness of these proposals in achieving the outcomes foreseen by the strategic review process. It concludes with some initial messages on the strategic review, drawn from discussion among delegates during the Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG) Global Forum in March 2015.

The Climate Support paper also focuses on proposals contained in the ADP’s Geneva negotiating text. It examines the proposals for mobilizing increased levels of climate support, noting the importance of agreement on the issue of climate support for securing an effective post-2020 climate agreement and exploring the advantages and disadvantages of the proposals in the Geneva text.

The paper focuses in particular on climate finance proposals and selects those considered “most clear, specific, and potentially implementable.” It then assesses the selected proposals using five criteria: potential to generate financial resources; potential to mobilize climate finance; ease of implementation; ease of monitoring; and ability to fill a specific gap not currently addressed under the UNFCCC framework. The paper labels the proposals as high, medium or low depending on how they fit the criteria.

The paper concludes with several messages, including that the goals and objectives of climate support will need to be tailored to different country circumstances and that balancing global objectives with national implementation will contribute to the durability and flexibility of the 2015 agreement.

The papers were published in response to requests by the Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG), which oversees development of analytical papers in order to provide input to negotiations under the UNFCCC. [Publication: Strategic Review: Implications of Proposals to Date for Mitigation Contributions] [Publication: Assessing Options to Increase Climate Support]