Day 0: 6 November 2022

“Today a new era begins, and we begin to do things differently. Paris gave us the Agreement; Katowice and Glasgow gave us the plan. Sharm-El-Sheikh shifts us to implementation.
 
“All of us have to do everything we are capable of doing.”
 
With these words, Simon Stiell of Grenada, the new Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, opened COP27 on Sunday.
 
COP27 has been billed as the “implementation COP”, and expectations for bold headlines are not high. But there is a lot of very important work on the agenda, including related to our chief area of interest – Article 6.
 
Media headlines have also played up the importance of climate finance this year – the Green Climate Fund pledged to amass $100 billion a year by 2020, but by all accounts this target has still not been reached.
 
In addition, the issue of loss & damage has made it onto the formal agenda for COP27 after some had expressed concern that it would be sidelined by developed countries. However, both the US and EU have reportedly expressed willingness to discuss the matter.
 
You could be forgiven, though, if Stiell’s opening speech gave the impression that work was only just getting started on Sunday afternoon.
 
Members of the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body pulled an all-nighter to complete their last session before the start of COP, and it was only around 7am on Sunday that they called a halt to their discussions.
 
Members of the Body were able to reach agreement on a draft recommendation that would create a guidance for crediting of carbon removals.
 
Unfortunately, the panel could not reach agreement on guidelines for methodologies for Article 6.4 projects, chiefly due to disagreements over how to operationalise the requirement agreed at COP26 that methodologies should align with Paris Agreement objectives.
 
CMA and Article 6 agenda 
The opening plenary of the CMA established contact groups for informal discussions on agenda items under both Article 6.2 and Article 6.4. The talks got underway late on Sunday afternoon, co-facilitated by delegates from Norway and Indonesia (Article 6.2) and Australia and Bhutan (Article 6.4).
 
On the carbon markets agenda for this year’s summit are:
 
Article 6.2:

• Guidance on tracking of ITMOs
• Guidelines for expert technical review
• Outlines for initial report and regular information
• Guidelines for authorisation
• Infrastructure (secretariat, admin charges, data)

You can find the SBSTA chair’s informal document containing proposals for a draft decision on these items here.
  
Article 6.4:

• CDM transition
• Use of CERs towards first NDC
• Reporting by host parties
• Article 6.4 registry
• Processes for the Share of Proceeds
• Processes for Overall Mitigation of Global Emissions

You can find the SBSTA chair’s informal document containing proposals for a draft decision on these items here.
 
Members of IETA’s International Working Group will shortly receive more detailed information on these agenda items.
 
It’s clear already that the draft decisions to be adopted regarding Article 6.4 reflect relatively more “mature” discussions than those regarding Article 6.2. That reflects the fact that Parties adopted more prescriptive decisions in Glasgow last year, as well as the work carried out by the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body to elaborate the rules, modalities and procedures (which are being referred to in the text as “RMP”).
 
The agreement on Article 6.2 reached in Glasgow is rather less specific, as many parts of operating this mechanism are left to parties to elaborate individually and bilaterally, and consequently there is still some difference in interpretation as to what “cooperative approaches” means.
 
Coming up… 
On Monday and Tuesday the High-Level segment of the meeting takes place, with heads of government meeting for round-table discussions and delivering national statements to the plenary.
 
This means there are no scheduled events on Monday at the IETA Business Hub, but the SBSTA informal discussions will be underway and we hope to bring you news of progress in tomorrow’s mail briefing.
 
On behalf of the IETA team, we look forward to welcoming many of you to the Business Hub and catching up.
 
Kind regards,
 
Alessandro

IETA COP27 BusinessHub News
IETA’s Business Hub is located in Zone 5, Pavilion P123 – our neighbouring pavilions at this year’s event are the International Chamber of Commerce, the GEF, the Coalition of Rainforest Nations and the Republic of Guinea (which has made at least one member of our secretariat team very happy!).