3.4.3 Provisions for Enforcement and Compliance
International mechanisms to monitor and review progress, to identify and respond
to non-compliance, are relevant as a means to advance implementation of the
technology transfer and cooperation provisions of the Protocol. The Convention
already has in place an elaborate system for the collection and review of national
information. The system aims to assess progress and facilitate national implementation
of the international obligations under the Convention (OECD, 1998a). The Kyoto
Protocol proposes to continue the monitoring, reporting and review functions,
and calls for strengthening of the review and compliance assessment functions
(OECD, 1999). Article 8 of the Protocol, in particular, requests the Climate
Change Secretariat to identify questions related to implementation as part of
the normal review of the performance of individual Parties (see Box
3.5).
At present UNFCCC reviews of national performance include an assessment of
the Annex II Party implementation of technology transfer and cooperation provisions
of the Convention. However, because these provisions are ambiguous, it is difficult
to assess performance in a compliance sense. An important step forward would
be to identify a checklist of relevant activities or implementation actions
that every Annex II Party should take. This would provide a point of departure
for reviewing the performance of the Convention and the more recent Kyoto Protocol
obligations. Because of the lack of clarity about these obligations, the UNFCCC
review of national information tends to be a descriptive exercise rather than
one that points out key areas of progress and shortfalls. Clarifying the expectations
of the international community with respect to these obligations, for Annex
II Parties as well as for all other Parties, would bring the technology transfer
obligations of Parties fully into the international compliance system, and encourage
open and transparent review of progress over time.
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