Ex-Ante Finance Information

4.1. Technical Details

For a deeper exploration of the details included in the Paris Agreement Rulebook, the following content seeks to probe the decisions reached by the CMA on ex-ante finance information. To structure this exploration and provide some guidance for implementation, the discussion is focused on the key questions of who, what, when, and where; for more on this approach, please see associated methodology.

WHAT? (FURTHER EXPLANATION OF “WHAT”)

Parties will communicate “indicative quantitative and qualitive information…including, as available, project levels of public financial resources to be provided” (Article 9, para. 5) on “financial resources to assist developing country Parties” (Article 9, para. 1).  

The types of information that Parties are to communicate is included in the annex to 12/CMA.1. This information includes:

• (a) Enhanced information to increase clarity on the projected levels of public financial resources to be provided to developing countries, as available;
• (b) Indicative quantitative and qualitative information on programmes, including projected levels, channels and instruments, as available;
• (c) Information on policies and priorities, including regions and geography, recipient countries, beneficiaries, targeted groups, sectors and gender responsiveness;
• (d) Information on purposes and types of support: mitigation, adaptation, cross-cutting activities, technology transfer and capacity-building;
• (e) Information on the factors that providers of climate finance look for in evaluating proposals, in order to help to inform developing countries;
• (f) An indication of new and additional resources to be provided, and how it determines such resources as being new and additional;
• (g) Information on national circumstances and limitations relevant to the provision of ex ante information;
• (h) Information on relevant methodologies and assumptions used to project levels of climate finance;
• (i) Information on challenges and barriers encountered in the past, lessons learned and measures taken to overcome them;
• (j) Information on how Parties are aiming to ensure a balance between adaptation and mitigation, taking into account the country-driven strategies and the needs and priorities of developing country Parties, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and have significant capacity constraints, such as the least developed countries and small island developing States, considering the need for public and grant-based resources for adaptation;
• (k) Information on action and plans to mobilize additional climate finance as part of the global effort to mobilize climate finance from a wide variety of sources, including on the relationship between the public interventions to be used and the private finance mobilized;
• (l) Information on how financial support effectively addresses the needs and priorities of developing country Parties and supports country-driven strategies;
• (m) Information on how support provided and mobilized is targeted at helping developing countries in their efforts to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, including by assisting them in efforts to make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development;
• (n) Information on efforts to integrate climate change considerations, including resilience, into their development support;
• (o) Information on how support to be provided to developing country Parties enhances their capacities.

The Secretariat will prepare a compilation and synthesis report in the year following submission of communications (12/CMA.1, para. 7). The Secretariat will organize in-session workshops in the year after submission of communications and prepare a summary report following each workshop (12/CMA.1, para. 8). The CMA will also convene a high-level ministerial dialogue, beginning in 2021, which will be informed by the in-session workshop summary reports and the biennial communications on ex-ante finance (12/CMA.1, para. 10). The CMA will consider the compilation and synthesis and the summary reports from the in-session workshops beginning at CMA 4, and the COP will also be invited to consider this information (12/CMA.1, paras. 9 and 12). The CMA President will summarize the deliberations of the high-level ministerial dialogue for consideration by the CMA at the succeeding session (12/CMA.1, para. 11).

WHO? FURTHER EXPLANATION OF “WHO”

Developed country Parties shall communicate, while other Parties providing resources are encouraged to communicate.

The following table details the responsibilities for Parties, the Secretariat, the CMA, and the COP for the process for consideration of information. The process itself is detailed further below.

WHEN? FURTHER EXPLANATION OF “WHEN”

Parties will begin submitting their communications in 2020 (12/CMA.1, para. 4), and will do so biennially. The process described above, with the compilation and synthesis reports, in-session workshops, and high-level dialogues will begin in 2021 (12/CMA.1, paras. 7, 9, 10) and repeat biennially thereafter.

WHERE? FURTHER EXPLANATION OF “WHERE”

Parties will submit communications specific to this information. It will not be included in biennial transparency reports or other documents. The Secretariat will establish an online portal where the biennial communications will be posted and recorded (12/CMA.1, para. 6).

4.2. Linkages with Other Elements of the Paris Agreement

Various elements of the Paris Agreement Rulebook are linked together, both implicitly and explicitly. These linkages build the Agreement’s plan-implement-review cycle and will support the implementation of the Agreement. This discussion details some of the linkages with ex-ante finance, building on the efforts first elaborated in Dagnet et al. (2017) and Dagnet et al. (2018), and including updated information from the final decisions reached by the CMA.

Adaptation Communications. These elements are linked because developing countries may take into account the information provided by contributor countries in order to inform their adaptation plans and actions, which could be captured in adaptation communications or the adaptation components of NDCs. Article 7.13 of the Paris Agreement also speaks to “continuous and enhanced international support” provided to support implementation of adaptation communications, inter alia.

Enhanced Transparency Framework. Linkages between the ex-ante communication of finance information under Article 9.5 and the enhanced transparency framework are indirect. Under Article 13, Parties report only on ex-post finance provided, mobilized, needed, and received. Some argue that it would be ideal to conduct comparisons of ex-ante and ex-post finance information. These comparisons, though, are not mandated or requested under either Article 9 or Article 13.

Global Stocktake. While the communications under Article 9.5 are not explicitly listed as a source of input to the global stocktake, the Secretariat is to publish a compilation and synthesis of the communications which is to “inform the global stocktake” (12/CMA.1, para. 7). The global stocktake will consider finance flows, of which Article 9.5 communications could be an important information source (19/CMA.1, para 36c).

Facilitating Implementation and Promoting Compliance. There is a direct linkage between communicating information under Article 9.5 and the Article 15 expert committee. The committee will initiate consideration of issues if a Party fails to submit its 9.5 communication (20/CMA.1, para. 22).

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