Enhancing Today's MRV Framework to Meet Tomorrow's Needs: The Role of National Communications and Inventories

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change employs a system of national communications and greenhouse gas inventories to monitor implementation of the Convention. This analysis examines the strengths and weaknesses of that system in the context of a post-2012 international climate change agreement, considering the Bali Action Plan provisions on measurement, reporting, and verification. It concludes that while the existing system contains elements that can support some parts of a post-2012 framework, a significant retrofit, accompanied by new processes, will be needed to measure, report, and verify the obligations envisioned in the Bali Action Plan.