As climate negotiations reopen on November, 6 at COP23 in Bonn to advance the concrete implementation of the different provisions of the Paris Agreement, this paper aims to take stock of the open questions of Article 15. They concern the role of the Committee responsible for “facilitating compliance and promoting implementation”.
First, the paper outlines what was already decided in Paris in 2015 as well as the issues still to be resolved by the end of 2018. These include the scope of its application, the means to initiate Article 15 as well as the outcomes that the committee can produce and the tools it should have at its disposal.
Keeping in mind Paris Agreement’s uniqueness and its philosophy, the author attempts to identify the added value of Article 15’s mechanism and suggests ways to address the respective expectations and concerns of Parties, in order to progress towards a consensual resolution that is acceptable to a large number of Parties.
