CEE Climate Issues

• Climate Change and CEE Countries
  
  
• Meeting the obligations
  
  
• Flexibility Mechanisms
  
  
• Monitoring and Reporting

Climate Change and CEE Countries

Economies in Transition (EITs) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have ratified the Climate Convention (UNFCCC). The first basic principle of the Convention is that countries listed in its Annex I - including EITs in CEE - should take the lead in combating climate change.

Annex I CEE countries are also signatories to the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention (signed in 1998). The Protocol sets specific targets and timeframes, which become binding if and when the Protocol is ratified by participating states.

Implementing the Convention and the Protocol is a special challenge for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Annex I CEE countries are currently in the midst of economic decline (as compared to pre-1990 levels). While the decline has reduced GDP and increased poverty and unemployment, it has radically curbed national greenhouse gas emission.

The capacity of EITs to meet their reporting obligations under the Convention and the Protocol and use the flexibility mechanisms is considerably weaker than in other Annex I countries. These commitments and opportunities will require special effort and attention to the institutional infrastructure and policies to:

• maintain low emission levels and de-couple them from economic growth;

• use the opportunities of the flexibility mechanisms for technological innovation; and

• meet the reporting requirements of the accords

Meeting the obligations

As part of Annex I, CEE countries have special obligations under the Convention and specific targets and assigned amounts under the Protocol.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change defines emission reduction objectives rather than targets. However, specific commitments concerning efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions and enhance natural sinks apply to the OECD countries as well as to "economies in transition" (Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union) listed in Annex I to the Convention. Although negotiations left the treaty language less than clear, it is generally accepted that the OECD and transition countries should at a minimum seek to return by the year 2000 to the greenhouse gas emission levels they had in 1990.

Annex I Economies in Transition (EITs) have undertaken measures to meet the objectives of the Climate Convention and the special commitments of Annex I Parties. Their activities include:

• Climate change action plans

• Assessments of mitigation measures and options

• Institutional arrangements

EIT countries in Central and Eastern Europe are also reforming and restructuring their economies. On-going reforms in the energy sector will have a profound and long-term impact on the ability of these countries to reduce GHG emissions.

While non-binding in character, these efforts are nonetheless helpful preparation for the more stringent requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. EITs in CEE have signed the Protocol and committed to maintaining emissions within set levels over a fixed period of time, and to meeting the more stringent reporting requirements.

Flexibility Mechanisms

The rationale behind Kyoto's "flexibility" mechanisms is to assist countries in achieving their targets by allowing emissions reductions to take place where they have the lowest possible costs.

The Kyoto Protocol includes four "flexibility" instruments, which enable countries to achieve these reductions with other states. Two of these are immediately relevant to CEE states:

1. Joint Implementation (JI) and
2. International Emissions Trading (IET).

The other two mechanisms of lesser current import to CEE countries are the Regional Bubble (Article 4) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) (Article 12).

Two of these mechanisms, JI and CDM, are based on projects. Currently, neither mechanism is operational. However, Economies in Transition in CEE are involved in Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) as a pilot phase of JI.

The materials on this sight look at experience and lessons from AIJ in CEE. Case studies from individual CEE countries and assessment of regional experience in CEE provide lessons for project-based flexibility mechanisms and suggest actions that need to be taken by Annex I CEE governments and the COP.

Monitoring and Reporting

Parties to the Convention and signatories of the Protocol have assumed a responsibility to monitor and report their emissions and to make that information public. There are some similarities between the reporting requirements of the Protocol and Convention: for instance, in both cases countries have to prepare inventories of their emissions. Overall the Kyoto Protocol requirements are much more stringent for Annex I countries who have assumed the obligation to limit their emissions to certain levels. Other differences include regularity of reports and their content and scope.

Reporting requirements differ under the Convention and the Protocol. Under the Convention, Parties submit national communications. National communications include elements such as GHG inventories, a description of policies and measures implemented to combat climate change, and any other information relevant to achieving the objectives of the Climate Convention.

The major reporting requirement of the Protocol is the submission of annual GHG inventories to track emissions from sources and sequestration from sinks. In addition, Article 7 of the Protocol further increases the need for reporting by providing that Annex I Parties shall supply "the necessary supplementary information for the purposes of ensuring compliance." Although it currently lacks substance, this standard set by Article 7 basically amounts to whatever additional data the COP requires to demonstrate compliance with the Kyoto commitments.

If countries decide to engage in flexibility mechanisms, they will also have to set up tracking systems to account for assigned amounts.