Is Enhanced Transparency the “Backbone” of the Paris Agreement?
17 December 2024
Last update: 13/12/24 15:26
The political endgame at COP29 laid bare, once more, the contested politics of responsibility and burden sharing in global climate governance: Who is to pay? Who is to take the lead in slashing emissions and phasing down fossil fuels? Reaching multilateral agreement on these tough political questions remains elusive: the logic of the Paris Agreement is based on voluntary and nationally determined contributions.
According to some, transparency might provide a way forward, filling the gaps left by the voluntary and nationally determined nature of targets. Indeed, transparency is often hailed as the ‘backbone’ of the Paris Agreement that will further accountability and climate action. For example, the European Commission stated that the Paris Agreement’s enhanced transparency framework “marks the beginning of a new era of accountability and collaboration in the global fight against climate change”.[1]
But is ‘enhanced’ transparency the backbone of the Paris Agreement? Is it a neutral means to further climate action? Or does it further the priorities of some groups of countries while marginalizing others? Such a questioning is vital at this particularly timely juncture in 2024 when the enhanced transparency framework becomes operational.
In a recently published article in Transnational Environmental Law, we undertook one of the first critical assessments of the enhanced transparency framework. Transparency can be vital and powerful but only if such effects are politically permissible. This is not currently the case. To the contrary, the design and workings of the enhanced transparency framework reflect, rather than transcend, unequal processes and outcomes of global climate governance. We thus call into question the claim that transparency is a generic backbone of the Paris Agreement, which may fill the gaps in enhanced action left by voluntary targets, with benefit to all. We provide a brief overview of our key arguments in this video.
Read “Is Enhanced Transparency the “Backbone” of the Paris Agreement? A Critical Assessment” open access in Transnational Environmental Law.
[1] Available at: https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/cop29-european-union-unveils-its-first-biennial-transparency-report-2024-11-21_en
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