As the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic still engulfing the world, including Indonesia and other Southeast Asia nations, the ACE continues its Work-from-Home (WFH) policy. In consequence, the fourth monthly in-house sharing session on climate-energy was conducted as an online session through the webinar platform. This edition discussed in Climate Change Governance, focusing on UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) bodies, and delivered by Dr. Zulfikar Yurnaidi.

Following a short history of UNFCCC, the lecture briefly introduced the complexity of UNFCCC bodies, which can be generally divided into supreme bodies, subsidiary bodies, constituted bodies, and secretariat. The Supreme Bodies are comprised of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol/Paris Agreement (CMP/CMA), as well as their Bureau. The permanent Subsidiary Bodies include Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and Subsidiary Bodies for Implementation (SBI). The SBSTA links the scientific side of climate change, including those from IPCCC, and the policy side of climate change, represented by COP.

Figure 1 IPCC supports UNFCCC through its studies and reports, such as AR5 and SR1.5C

There are many constituted bodies under the UNFCCC. Each body has specific functions, supervised by and reporting to the COP/CMP/CMA. A group of constituted bodies falls under the technical mechanism, including the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). Hosted by UNIDO and UNEP, CTCN works in the area of technical assistance, knowledge sharing, and collaboration & networking.

Figure 2 UNFCCC Technology Mechanism

The financial mechanism of UNFCC is comprised of four Funds: Green Climate Fund (GCF), Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), Least Development Countries Fund (LDCF), and Adaptation Fund. GCF is established in 2010, with initial pledges of $10.2 billion (2015-2018) and so far, $6 billion (2019-2022). Meanwhile, the SCCF and LDCF are managed by Global Environment Facility (GEF), which also serves as a financial mechanism for UNFCCC sister Rio Conventions, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), among others.

Figure 3 GCF Portfolio

The remaining constituted bodies can be generally categorized into those under the Kyoto Protocol, e.g. Compliance Committee (CC) and Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM EB), Expert Groups, e.g. Consultative Group of Experts (CGE), and Others, e.g. Adaptation Committee (AC), Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM excom), and Paris Committee on Capacity-building (PCCB). The presentation was then closed with climate finance architecture and national governance on climate change.

Following up the presentation was an open discussion session filled with great questions, including the responsibility share between developed and developing countries, the effectiveness of the GCF portfolio, impact of UNFCCC to ASEAN Member States (AMS), and linkage between national and international policy of climate change, among others. For reference, please find the presentation file here. Feel free to contact the ACCEPT team for further discussions.

Through sharing and discussion sessions like these, ACCEPT aims to strengthen ACE capacity on energy-related climate policy as well as build the capacity on the energy-climate policy nexus among energy experts from AMS. The next in-house sharing session on climate-energy will be held on May on international climate change agreement. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out our COVID-19 page for more information on impacts of COVID-19 to energy and climate sector in ASEAN.