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COP 24 Adopts Paris Agreement Rulebook – Carlos Fuller, International and Regional Liaison Officer of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and Climate Change Negotiator
After two weeks of intense negotiations that went 28 hours into overtime, COP 24 adopted a 133-page “rulebook” for the Paris Agreement. These rules which are contained in a series of Decisions contain the modalities and procedures on how the various articles of the Paris Agreement are to be implemented.
The COP welcomed the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to which the Parties in the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) had failed to agree the previous week. This report was used to inform the Talanoa Dialogue, which encouraged Parties to consider the outcomes of the Dialogue to inform the preparation of the NDCs and pre-2020 ambition.
Guidelines were adopted for the preparation of NDCs including common timeframes commencing in 2030. The NDCs will be posted on a Registry to be developed and maintained by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which will also include a section for Adaptation Communications. Parties agreed that the Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol would serve the Paris Agreement and that it would receive the proceeds of the market mechanism established under the Paris Agreement. However, Parties could not agree on this article of the Agreement which covers cooperative approaches, and the market and non-market mechanisms. The SBSTA would continue debating these issues at this next session for a decision to be adopted at the next COP which will be held in Chile next year.
Parties agreed to commence consideration of the new goal for climate finance in 2020 utilizing the 2020 goal of USD100 billion as the starting point. In addition, as of 2020, developed countries will provide indicative information every two years on the climate financial to be provided to developing countries including the channels, instruments, targeted regions and countries, and sectors.
The modalities, procedures and guidelines of the Transparency Framework were adopted through which Parties will report on how they are implementing the provisions of the Paris Agreement. These will undergo a technical expert peer review process. The Parties also adopted the modalities and procedures which the Compliance Committee will use to assist Parties which are unable to meet their NDCs. The procedures to undertake the global stocktake (GST) in 2023 and every five years thereafter were also agreed.
The result of COP 24 is that the Parties to the Paris Agreement now have most of the tools to begin the implementation of the Agreement.

Photo courtesy: Britany Meighan
CCORAL Is Here! Endorsed by the IPCC Chair
In keeping with its thrust to promote a culture of risk management across the region, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre launched a seminal online support tool in Saint Lucia today. The launch event, which was attended by permanent secretaries from ministries of finance and planning, development partners, Saint Lucia’s Deputy Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre (among other St. Lucian officials), a broad cross-section of regional stakeholders and journalists, officially introduced the Caribbean Climate Online Risk and Adaptation TooL (CCORAL).
In his keynote address Dr. James Fletcher, Saint Lucia’s Minister of Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, urged the region to ensure broad use and adaptability of CCORAL. He added that CCORAL, which has been endorsed by Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, will promote climate-smart development by helping to embed a risk management ethic in decision-making processes across the region.
“The development of the risk assessment tool [is] an extremely important asset in assessing the risk from the impacts of climate change in the Caribbean region,” according to Dr. Pachauri. The two dozen island nations of the Caribbean, and the 40 million people who live there, are in a state of increased vulnerability to climate change. Higher temperatures, sea level rise, and increased hurricane intensity threaten lives, property and livelihoods throughout the region. Against this background, CCORAL will help to boost the capacity of these countries to assess their risk amidst a variable and changing climate, while creating pathways for the identification and implementation of adaptation and mitigation options.
“CCORAL is a practical approach to cost-effective climate-resilient investment projects,” says Dr. Kenrick Leslie, Executive Director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. “CCORAL will aid the region in defining approaches and solutions that will provide benefits now and in the future by adopting ‘no-regret’ actions and flexible measures.”

(L-R) Dr. Trotz, Deputy Director, CCCCC; Sylvester Clauzel, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, Saint Lucia; Keith Nichols, Project Development Specialist, CCCCC; Dr. Bynoe, Sr. Environmental & Resource Economist, CCCCC; Dr. Kenrick Leslie, CBE, Executive Director, CCCCC; Dr. Fletcher, Minister of the Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, Saint Lucia; and Deputy Prime Minister of Saint Lucia Philip J. Pierre
It is intended to be used primarily by agencies at the regional and national level with responsibility for development, planning and finance, the private sector and non-governmental organisations. Ministries of Finance and/or Planning are central to the initial efforts to anchor this tool in climate resilience-building decisions. Notwithstanding, civil society organisations, universities, financial services and development partners, local communities can also use CCORAL to inform actions that must embed climate considerations. The tool is available to all member countries through an open source online platform at ccoral.caribbeanclimate.bz.
According to Keith Nichols, Programme Development Specialist at the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, “the development of the risk assessment tool emerged after an extensive consultation process with regional stakeholders to ensure authenticity, relevance and ownership”. It is a direct response to the requirement of the Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change (the “Regional Framework”) and the landmark Implementation Plan (IP) that were endorsed by CARICOM Heads in 2009 and 2012, respectively. The IP acknowledges that a transformational change in mindset, institutional arrangements, operating systems, collaborative approaches and integrated planning mechanisms are essential to deliver the strategic elements and goals of the Regional Framework and to enable climate smart development by embedding a risk management ethic in decision-making.
The Caribbean Climate Online Risk and Adaptation Tool (CCORAL), has been developed by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) with funding from the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and the Climate Development and Knowledge Network (CDKN).
Learn more about CCORAL by viewing the CCORAL Fact Sheet and Brochure.
Updated July 12, 2013 at 12:07pm post-lauch
FAO Hosts GHG Emissions Statistics Workshop in Trinidad
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre participated in the recently concluded (June 3-4, 2013) Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) Statistics Workshop in Port of Spain. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) event was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Food Production, Land and Marine Resources for Latin American countries. This was the second of a series of regional workshops being undertaken by the FAO to raise awareness of the importance of agricultural statistics for the preparation of GHG inventories and the development of national mitigation strategies to improve agricultural productivity, food security and environmental sustainability.
Representatives of the FAO delivered presentations on agriculture and climate change, emissions from the agriculture sector and the data required for estimating these emissions. They also presented the FAO project, Monitoring and Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Mitigation Potential in Agriculture (MAGHG). The activities of the project include the development of an online agriculture, forestry and land use emissions database (FAOSTAT). The database contains the emissions from all FAO Members in these sectors from 1990 to 2010 using the IPCC 2006 methodology. Further developments in FAOSTAT will include emission projections to 2050. Representatives of the IPCC Task Force on Inventories (TFI) presented on the use of the IPCC 2006 GHG Inventories software. Representatives of Brazil, and Ecuador presented on their national experiences in developing national GHG inventory processes.
The workshop included interactive roundtables on climate change, mitigation and adaptation, the requirements of countries to develop inventories in the agriculture sector, and the resolution of problems to improve national GHG Inventory systems especially in light of the UNFCCC decision on biennial update reports (BUR). In Doha, COP 18 decided that countries should provide biennial update reports of their GHG inventories to supplement the inventories in their National Communications.
The representatives of the FAO and the IPCC agreed that a similar workshop could be delivered to the Members of CARICOM upon their request. The Centre will undertake consultations with the climate change authorities in these countries..