The document summarizes key discussions from a virtual climate change forum. It addresses transparency issues around common reporting formats to track climate progress and links between Article 6 negotiations and reporting. It also discusses country experiences with updating NDCs, emphasizing ownership and coordination. Finally, it notes the importance of long-term climate strategies to drive short-term targets, and challenges posed by COVID-19 to climate processes.

1. Climate Change Expert Group www.oecd.org/env/cc/ccxg.htm
Key takeaways from the virtual CCXG
Global Forum on the Environment and
Climate Change
Virtual CCXG Global Forum on the Environment and Climate Change
March/April 2020
31 March – 1 April 2020

2. 2 Climate Change Expert Group
Transparency: Common tabular formats to track
progress on implementation and achievement
• Common Tabular Formats (CTFs) could serve several different purposes; agreeing
on the function of a CTF could help agreements on its form
o Need to be flexible to accommodate different NDC types, while also meeting TACCC
principles
• The extent to which TACCC principles are met is influenced by choices on structure
& detail of CTFs
o Detailed and clear prompts can encourage transparency, completeness, consistency,
comparability
o … but may lead to very lengthy reports
• Difference of views remain, e.g. on need for consistency in indicators reported for
NDC implementation and achievement
• Further work is needed on how to track and report towards conditional and
unconditional components of NDCs

3. 3 Climate Change Expert Group
Transparency: Article 6, ITMOs, CORSIA
• Significant interlinkages exist between decisions on the Article 6 framework and
CTFs being developed under Article 13: relevant negotiations need to be co-
ordinated
• Potentially lots of information is needed to ensure that reporting on use of
cooperative approaches is transparent
o This will in part depend on agreements on other infrastructure/means of tracking use of
cooperative approaches, and is particularly true if any Article 6 framework agreed allows
for wide eligibility of ITMOs (e.g. sources, metrics)
• Unclear where/how to best track and report this information, e.g. any Article 6
database/registry, Article 6 report, supplementary tables to CTF
• Recognition of the need for reporting tables on cooperative approaches to
accommodate the different types of NDCs

4. 4 Climate Change Expert Group
Updating NDCs: Sharing experience
• Updating NDCs offers opportunities for enhancing climate change mitigation targets
o Political will and high-level buy-in are key
o Countries are also looking at strengthening adaptation actions, MRV systems, data
collection and NDC costing
• Country ownership of the NDC is crucial
o Need for a whole-of-government approach, including co-ordination across different
ministries and agencies and consultations with stakeholders (private sector, civil society
and academia)
o It is important to build and sustain relevant national expertise and appropriate data
o The NDC could reflect national priorities and could be embedded in national development
plans
• Covid-19 crisis is delaying NDC update/communication processes

5. 5 Climate Change Expert Group
NDCs and long-term mitigation strategies (LTS)
• A long-term vision is key to drive short-term targets (e.g. NDCs) and actions
o Focus needs to shift from agreeing on “what” needs to happen to understanding “how” to
achieve it
o Important to take an iterative approach and plan for regular update and revision of long-
term strategies to reflect new science and trends
• Horizontal (across ministries) and vertical (at different administrative levels)
institutional co-ordination is key to the development of effective long-term plans
• Covid-19 crisis also impacting LTS processes
o How to maintain focus on long-term climate strategies amidst such a global crisis?
o Important lessons can be drawn from Covid-19 crisis and applied to the climate challenge
(need for preparedness, severe consequences and impacts of inaction)