Assessing state compliance with multilateral climate transparency requirements: ‘Transparency Adherence Indices’ and their research and policy implications

Figures & data

Table 1. Current differentiated reporting and review processes under the UNFCCC.

	Annex I (developed country) Parties	Non-Annex I (developing country) Parties
Reporting	• GHG inventory (shall be submitted every year) • Biennial Report (shall be submitted every two years) • National Communications (shall be submitted every four years)	Biennial Update Report (should be submitted every two years except for LDCs and SIDS, who can do so at their discretion) National Communications, including GHG inventory (should be submitted every four years but submission is conditional on provision of funding to cover cost of preparation)
Review	International assessment and review: Technical review of national GHG inventories, Biennial Reports and National Communications Multilateral assessment	International consultation and analysis: Technical analysis of Biennial Update Reports Facilitative sharing of views

Source: UNFCCC (1992, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014).

Table 2. BR Transparency Adherence Index (Annex I Parties)

Annex II Parties
Rank	Party	BR1	BR2	BR3	Average
1	Finland	97	93	97	96
2	Australia	93	90	97	93
3	European Union	83	93	93	90
3	Germany	87	87	97	90
5	Netherlands	93	87	87	89
5	Sweden	87	93	87	89
5	Japan	90	93	83	89
5	United Kingdom	90	83	93	89
9	New Zealand	83	87	93	88
10	Belgium	77	90	93	87
10	Greece	93	77	90	87
12	France	87	83	87	86
12	Italy	80	87	90	86
12	Spain	80	87	90	86
15	Switzerland	80	73	93	82
16	Portugal	77	77	90	81
16	Canada	83	73	87	81
18	Austria	70	83	87	80
18	Denmark	77	73	90	80
18	Norway	73	83	83	80
21	Ireland	73	73	70	72
22	Luxembourg	60	67	73	67
23	Iceland	70	60	67	66
24	United States of America	90	90	0	60
Average		82	83	84	83
Other Annex I Parties
Rank	Party	BR1	BR2	BR3	Average
1	Turkey^a	87	93	100	93
2	Estonia	87	96	91	91
3	Czech Republic	89	87	96	90
3	Romania	100	78	91	90
5	Lithuania	89	87	91	89
6	Latvia	87	87	87	87
7	Slovakia	84	78	91	84
8	Croatia	89	91	69	83
9	Hungary	89	71	84	81
9	Bulgaria	78	78	87	81
11	Liechtenstein	69	76	96	80
12	Cyprus	82	76	73	77
12	Russian Federation	67	78	87	77
14	Poland	49	87	91	76
15	Slovenia	78	73	73	75
16	Malta	78	76	62	72
16	Kazakhstan	60	69	87	72
18	Belarus	62	78	–^b	70
18	Monaco	82	60	67	70
20	Ukraine	73	0	0	24
Average		79	76	80	78

Notes: ^aTurkey is an Annex I Party with no GHG emission reduction target and is thus not obliged to report on assumptions, conditions and methodologies related to attainment of a quantified economy-wide emission reduction target and progress in achievement of targets; ^bBelarus’ BR3 had not yet been reviewed as of March 2^nd, 2020.

Table 3. Developed country Parties’ average adherence score per section of the BRs.

Section	Annex I Parties	Average score			Average score (BR1, BR2 and BR3)
		BR1	BR2	BR3
GHG emissions and trends	Annex II	96	96	93	95
	Other Annex I	89	85	87	87
Assumptions, conditions and methodologies related to the attainment of the quantified economy-wide emission reduction target	Annex II	92	92	89	91
	Other Annex I	80	80	83	81
Progress in achievement of targets, including projections	Annex II	75	71	78	75
	Other Annex I	66	60	68	64
Provision of support to developing country Parties	Annex II	66	72	77	71
	Other Annex I^a	–	–	–	–

Note: ^aUnder the UNFCCC (1992), only Annex II Parties have obligations in terms of reporting information on their provision of support to developing country Parties.

Table 4. Developing country Parties’ engagement in submitting BURs.

	Number of non-Annex I Parties
	Neither LDC nor SIDS (total: 77)	LDC and/or SIDS (total: 79)
No BUR submitted	31	70
BUR1 submitted	46	9
BUR2 submitted	30	1
BUR3 submitted	9	1

Table 5. BUR Transparency Adherence Index (top 20 GHG emitters^a among non-Annex I Parties).

Party	BUR1	BUR2	BUR3
China	100	SBNYA^b	NYS^c
India	65	100	NYS
Indonesia	81	74	NYS
Brazil	100	66	SBNYA
Iran	NYS	NYS	NYS
Mexico	66	70	NYS
Republic of Korea	60	67	SBNYA
Saudi Arabia	65	NYS	NYS
South Africa	50	48	SBNYA
Zambia^d	NYS	NYS	NYS
Nigeria	89	NYS	NYS
Argentina	49	87	SBNYA
Pakistan	NYS	NYS	NYS
Thailand	89	84	NYS
Venezuela	NYS	NYS	NYS
Egypt	SBNYA	NYS	NYS
Tanzania^d	NYS	NYS	NYS
Vietnam	71	78	NYS
Kazakhstan	NYS	NYS	NYS
United Arab Emirates	NYS	NYS	NYS

Note: Parties are ordered by the size of their emissions in 2017.

^a According to CAIT data (including land-use change and forestry) extracted from Climate Watch (2020) on February 19th, 2020.

^b SBNYA: Submitted but not yet analysed.

^c NYS: Not yet submitted.

^d Least Developed Country.

Table 6. Developing country Parties’ average adherence score per section of the BURs.

Section	Non-Annex I Parties	Average score			Average score (BUR1, BUR2 and BUR3)
		BUR1^a	BUR2^b	BUR3^c
National GHG inventory report	LDC and/or SIDS	100	100	75	92
	Other non-Annex I	92	82	80	89
Information on mitigation actions	LDC and/or SIDS	75	100	100	92
	Other non-Annex I	68	70	61	68

Note: These are partial results since: ^aBUR1 score is based on the technical summary reports of 4 LDC and/or SIDS Parties and 39 other non-Annex I Parties.

^b BUR2 is based on the technical summary reports of 1 LDC and/or SIDS Party and 24 other non-Annex I Parties.

^c BUR3 is based on the technical summary reports of 1 LDC and/or SIDS Party and 2 other non-Annex I Parties.

Table A1. Completeness and transparency assessment scoreboard for BRs

BR section	Number of mandatory requirements in BR guidelines	Number of missing mandatory requirements identified by the ERT	Assessment of completeness and transparency of BR section
GHG emissions and removals	2	1	Mostly complete/transparent
		2	Partially complete/transparent
Assumptions, conditions and methodologies related to the emission reduction target	2	1	Mostly complete/transparent
		2	Partially complete/transparent
Progress in achievement of the emission reduction target including projections	14	1–4	Mostly complete/transparent
		5–13	Partially complete/transparent
Provision of support to developing country Parties	15	1–3	Mostly complete/transparent
		4–15	Partially complete/transparent

Source: Reproduced from UNFCCC Secretariat (2019, p. 9).

Table A2. Scorecard used to construct the Adherence Index of each section of a BR

	Gradation by the expert review teams	Score
Completeness	Complete	3
	Mostly complete	2
	Partially complete	1
	Not complete	0
Transparency	Transparent	3
	Mostly transparent	2
	Partially transparent	1
	Not transparent	0
Timeliness	Report submitted before the deadline	3
	Report submitted within six weeks after the due date^a	2
	Report submitted more than six weeks after the due date^a	1
	No submission	0

Note: ^aWe chose this cut-off date because when a submission is made more than six weeks after the due date, the delay is brought to the attention of the COP.

Table A3. Scorecard used to construct the Adherence Index of each section of a BUR

	Gradation by the technical teams of experts	Score
Extent to which the mandatory elements of information are included	Yes	1
	Partly	0.5
	No	0
Timeliness^a	Submission on time (i.e. by December 2014 for the first BUR; and every two years for subsequent BURs).	1
	Late submission	0

^a According to UNFCCC (2011, para. 41), ‘non-Annex I Parties, consistent with their capabilities and the level of support provided for reporting, should submit their first Biennial Update Report by December 2014. (…). [They] shall submit a Biennial Update Report every two years (…)’. LDCs and SIDS may submit BURs at their discretion.

Table A4. BRs submission timeliness

Annex I Parties	Timeliness score			Average timeliness score
	BR1	BR2	BR3
Annex II Parties	79	89	86	85
Other Annex I Parties	70	73	77	73

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