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The Paris Agreement (PA) mechanism comprises multiple elements and techniques, which guide the countries to contribute to the overall objectives. Understanding of the PA mechanism requires the understanding of key elements.

391 _{Climate Stewards What Is COP21? (Climate Stewards, 2017),}

<https://www.climatestewards.org/resources/cop21/>.

392 _{Conference of the Parties 21, Paris France Sustainable Innovation Forum 2015 Working With UNEP (COP,}

2016), <http://www.cop21paris.org/>; Pierce Nahigyan, ‘What Is COP21 And Why Does It Matter?’, Huffington Post (online), 30 November 2016, <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/pierce-nahigyan/what-is- cop21-and-why-doe_b_8683312.html>.

393 _{Carbon-mechanisms.de, The Paris Agreement And Article 6 – Carbon Mechanisms (Carbon-mechanisms.de,}

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4.9.1 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

The compelling feature of the PA mechanism is that member countries have agreed to move forward with legally binding actions for combating climate change. According to Article 4(2) of the Paris Agreement, parties to the agreement shall prepare, communicate and maintain consecutive NDCs. Each party shall provide necessary information for the clarity and transparency and each subsequent NDC will be new, more ambitious and present a progression every five years. The agreement commits the parties to pursue domestic measures with the aim of achieving the objectives of the NDCs but does not legally bind parties to their implementation or achievement of their goals.394 For this purpose, the countries have been required to submit their national emission reduction targets, also known as NDCs, on a regular basis. In this regard, the countries were given freedom to choose their targets. But the country’s ambition must be reflected in their targets, which means every new NDCs must set higher emission reduction targets compared to previously submitted targets.

A survey indicates that 160 NDCs have been submitted as of January 2016 and nearly 80% have adaptation components.395 _{Parties can use National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) as a primary}

national planning tool to achieve the goals set out in the NDCs. The parties are also allowed to prepare NDCs to incorporate mitigation goals. It is to be mentioned that NDCs consist of conditional and unconditional emission reduction goals in mitigation actions, which Bangladesh aims to achieve.

4.9.2 Global Transparency Mechanism

A vital feature of the PA mechanism is that it requires the countries to achieve their NDCs through a global transparency mechanism. This will help them not only in achieving their NDC goals, but also allow the authorities to review their processes of mitigation efforts.396 _{In fact,}

this review process is an accountability mechanism, in which the performance of countries in accomplishing their NDC ambitions will be reviewed. If any country has been failing to achieve their NDC targets, this review process may lead to significant reputational risk. In

394 _{United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Analysis of Intended Nationally Determined}

Contributions (USAID, 2016), <https://www.climatelinks.org/file/2104/download?token=ICW6yp8i.>.

395 _{Takayoshi Kato and Jane Ellis, Communicating Progress in National and Global Adaptation to Climate}

Change, Climate Change Expert Group Paper No. 2016(1) (CCEG, 2016)

<https://www.oecd.org/environment/cc/Adaptation-Communication-CCXG-paper-2016(1).pdf>.

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addition, the PA mechanism also includes a global stocktake, which will review the performance of the whole programme every five years. The purpose of this global stocktake is to check whether this global community has been able to limit annual GHG rises. Similarly, is the global community able to achieve the future target of 1.5° Celsius or not? On the basis of their performance, the UNFCCC and other related authorities can take necessary actions through policy.

4.9.3 International Cooperation

The PA mechanism also allows participants to enter into cooperation with other countries in order to implement their programmes. Under Article 6, the nature of such international co- operations is “assistive” in nature; one country provides assistance to the other country during the implementation of a sustainable development project and achieving their NDCs. Moreover, the participant countries can also use market-based mitigation mechanisms for achieving their NDC goals. However, there are certain guidelines for developing such international co- operations. First, the cooperation agreements must be voluntary and approved by the governments of both countries. Second, the cooperation must boost the country’s ambitions for climate actions, so the collaboration cannot be to assist in implementing existing climate action plans but must raise future ambitions. Third, the primary goal of such co-operations must be sustainable development emissions and the reduction of GHG emissions. Fourth, these co- operations must ensure environmental integrity. Fifth, the participants can use either one or the combination of approaches as a part of their cooperative mechanism:397

1. Direct bilateral co-operations

2. New sustainable development mechanism

3. Non-market-based approaches

4.9.4 Direct Bilateral Cooperation

The other promising feature of the PA mechanism is bilateral cooperation. Article 6.2 allows the member countries to engage in direct bilateral co-operations, in which it would be possible to transfer the emission reductions targets to another country from the host country where the

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emission reduction measures had been implemented. The receiving country can use these emission reductions for achieving its NDC targets. This process resembles the CDM mechanism of the Kyoto protocol. However, the major challenge is the successful and transparent implementation process, which requires accounting for emission reductions accurately in the emission reduction inventory of both countries, in which the emission reduction activities are being conducted and in which the emission reductions are being transferred. This cooperative approach has been backed by a work programme that lays out the functional guidelines for this process. In addition, it is also possible for such activities to be linked to the different instruments of cross-border carbon market, such as the EU emission trading scheme and other related instruments.

4.9.5 New Sustainable Development Mechanism

The Paris Agreement also promises a new sustainable development mechanism (SDM), which will lead to achieving the goals of sustainable development and mitigation of GHG. Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement develops the understanding of the new sustainable development mechanism. It is also notable that, unlike bilateral co-operations, the new SDM will be supervised and controlled directly by the appointed body of the UNFCCC’s Conference of Parties, which will control the SDM through establishing and defining the new rules, modalities and procedures for SDM.

Similar to bilateral approaches, the new SDM also offers a market-based mechanism, in which the member countries can transfer emission reductions from one country, in which the credits were produced, to another country, where the credits are used for achieving NDC targets. The system of market-based approaches is described by Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. The overall objectives of new SDM are to reduce the absolute level of GHG and sustainable development.

The most compelling feature of the new SDM is that it defines the role of non-governmental members in contributing to climate protection. Article 6.4 allows the private sector, such as investors, to mobilise their investments towards green and sustainable investment projects. The investment goal of has been estimated at nearly US$100 billion and, for this purpose, private investors and companies can be attracted by offering incentives and policies. In this scenario, the sub-national-level players, such as private sector investors and companies, can also access and directly use the SDM mechanism and contribute to the fight against climate change.

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4.9.6 Non-Market-Based Approaches

Unlike the market-based CDM approach, the PA mechanism also involves non-market-based approaches. Article 6.8 allows member countries to use non-market-based approaches.398 However, the detailed overview of such non-market-based approaches will not be available for several years as it is still under development, along with a ‘Framework of non-market-based approaches’. Nonetheless, the introduction of non-market-based approaches sounds positive, because it will increase the range of available approaches for sustainable development.