Raising Ambition through Cooperation

Three recently published papers explore ambition raising options under Article 6

May 2018 - In order to achieve the climate change mitigation targets agreed in Paris, Parties must urgently raise their ambition. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which allows Parties to cooperate in implementing their nationally determined contributions, is to contribute to this objective. Against this backdrop, Wuppertal Institute, NewClimate Institute and KORU Climate recently published three Papers that explore the interaction between ambition raising and Article 6 from different perspectives highlighting opportunities as well as challenges.

The paper from the Wuppertal Institute „Raising Ambition through Cooperation - Using Article 6 to bolster climate change mitigation” takes a broad perspective by deducting a definition of ambition raising from the Paris Agreement and exploring eight different options of how Article 6 could be used in to raise ambition in principle. The analysis shows that these options are associated with different technical, institutional and political challenges, calling for a combination of different ambition raising options to best suit countries’ specific national circumstances. A combination of different ambition raising options would also allow to achieve an immediate climate impact while at the same time integrating the increased ambition into Parties’ mid and long-term mitigation strategies.

The paper from NewClimate Institute „Opportunities and safeguards for ambition raising through Article 6 - The perspective of countries transferring mitigation outcomes“ focuses on the ambition raising implications to engage in voluntary cooperation under Article 6 for the originating Parties. The paper shows why Article 6 should focus on driving mitigation in otherwise inaccessible abatement options and why it is critical that support should only last for a limited time period, after which own action must kick-in. The realisation of this ambition raising potential is however dependent on the effective design and implementation of measures to safeguard against potential risks that can create conditions for ambition disincentives. The paper identifies four broad safeguards to ensure that instruments developed under Article 6 can deliver effectively on the needs of those who transfer mitigation outcomes, whilst providing positive incentives for ambition raising.

The paper from KORU Climate „Incentivizing mitigation: Using international carbon markets to raise ambition” explores what raising mitigation ambition means in the context of international carbon markets and the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that countries establish under the Paris Agreement. It seeks to identify practical approaches to the implementation of carbon markets that can help make rising ambition a real outcome. First, different criteria are identified that can be reasonably expected to be met, to varying degrees, when countries formulate their market-related policy instruments in a manner that strives to increase mitigation ambition over time. The paper then identifies four promising approaches to implementing international carbon markets in a way that enhances mitigation ambition. These could be implemented individually or in combination and may contribute to ambition raising in different ways.

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