Highlights -- Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee, meeting 30

Highlights -- Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee, meeting 30

Highlights -- Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee, meeting 30

For a full report of the meeting see:
<http://ji.unfccc.int/Sup_Committee/Meetings/index.html>

Bonn, 27 September 2012 – The Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (JISC) has agreed key recommendations that, if adopted, will see a smooth transition to a revamped JI mechanism in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

The recommendations on how to revise the JI Guidelines, the rules that govern the mechanism, maintain a wide-ranging definition of JI activities, encompassing individual projects all the way up to sectoral or policy-based initiatives. The resulting new modalities and procedures would include an elaboration of the project cycle and increased responsibilities for host governments and the accredited independent entities that vet JI projects.

“The joint implementation mechanism has taken off in the past few years, as countries have come to recognize its usefulness in incentivizing projects that reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions,” said JISC Vice-Chair Carola Borja, who served as chair on the final day of the JISC’s 30th meeting. “These recommendations, requested of the JISC by the governments under the Kyoto Protocol, contain substantial, even fundamental changes that would make JI an even more robust and effective tool that countries can use to combat climate change.”

Under JI, a market-based mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, projects that reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions can earn saleable emission reduction units (ERUs). To date, some 410 projects in 16 countries with an emission reduction or limitation commitment under the Protocol have been issued a total of almost 257 million ERUs. The units are used by countries and companies to cover a part of their commitments stemming from the Protocol.

The JISC’s recommendations also call for a new governing body that would set essential standards and rules for the formulation of JI activities and operation of the mechanism as a whole. The body would have a wide mandate to oversee the mechanism and ensure that the rules are being properly applied.

The recommendations, which include steps that the Parties should take to ensure a smooth transition of JI from the first commitment period, which concludes at the end of 2012, to the next, are based on the JISC’s experience in implementing JI and take into account consultations with stakeholders and JI representatives within governments.

The recommended revisions and transitional measures are to be considered by the Parties to Kyoto Protocol when they next meet at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November-December 2012.