Over the past two years, the FAO and RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests have brought together regional experts to reflect on the outcomes of the 15th and 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The resulting booklets Forests and Climate Change After Copenhagen: An Asia-Pacific Perspective and Forests and Climate Change After Cancun: An Asia-Pacific Perspective were distributed widely and very well received.

Bridging the Gap has reviewed the NAMA intentions communicated to the UNFCCC from a land transport perspective. The aim of this paper is to provide an insight into the broader domestic context in which a selection of these intentions to conduct NAMAs in the land transport sector have been developed, and to seek to identify whether any additional information exists about intentions for the financing and MRVing of NAMA suggestions.

The requirements for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) are one of the crucial topics on the agenda of international negotiations to address climate change mitigation. According to agreements so far, the general guidelines for domestic MRV are to be developed by Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA).

This paper reinforces the need for a robust yet simplified MRV framework to make NAMAs work on a large scale providing opportunities to countries and sectors less benefited by the CDM. The discussion focused on the transport sector – reviewed the trend and expectations of submitted transport NAMAs then examined the performance of transport projects under the Clean Development Mechanism to find lessons that may be applicable in the design of an MRV framework for supported and credited NAMAs that is practical and appropriate to the data requirements of the transport sector.

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) hosted a workshop on measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector on 9 February 2012 held in Manila, Philippines. This is in line with work on the assessment of transport data collection and management in selected key Asian cities and its implications to potential MRV framework based on the lessons from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other existing methodologies.

A summary of the proceedings from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, and their significance for the land transport sector.

This FAO publication focuses on climate change mitigation financing for smallholders. The Organization, however, fully recognizes that adaptation may be the imperative and priority over the short and medium term for many smallholders in circumstances where climate change may adversely impact their efforts to overcome poverty and food insecurity. In many cases, most countries will need to deal with both adaptation and mitigation.

In this paper, six developing countries with possible domestic ETS are analysed: Brazil, China, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and South Korea. Brazil has set up a stock exchange for voluntary carbon units which may precede a domestic trading scheme. China has made concrete steps towards the creation of regional ETS in various cities and provinces. Newer announcements even envisage the creation of a national system by 2015. However, these plans are still in early stages, and differ widely in their institutional designs.