International Climate Agreements

One of the most difficult challenges facing nations attempting to implement the Climate Convention is the integration of GHG considerations into national develop-ment programs. Building on Winkler et al. (2002), this chapter explores this challenge at the international level. Namely, how might an approach based on policies and measures be formalized and defined within a future inter-national climate agreement? In other words, how might Parties develop a mechanism for formally recognizing and advancing the kinds of sustainable development policies and measures (SD-PAMs) discussed in this volume? The approach outlined here proceeds along several steps. First, the international community would likely need to agree on general guidelines for what constitutes an “SD-PAM ” that is eligible to be pledged under the UNFCCC. These basic definitional considerations are outlined in section 1. Second, a process would be needed whereby Parties would actually pledge eligible SD-PAMs. Such a process, discussed in section 2, could work in a variety of different ways, either as unilateral, mutual, or harmonized pledges. Third, once pledged, SD-PAMs could be recorded and tracked by the Convention Secre-tariat or other body (section 3). Fourth, a broader program of assessing progress would likely be needed, including reporting and review procedures (section 4). Finally, while this is essentially a qualitative approach, it is conceivable that it could incorporate a quantitative dimension, and perhaps also be integrated into the nascent international carbon market. Section 5 discusses issues and options regarding quantifying SD-PAMs