A series of workshops giving both developing and developed countries the opportunity to showcase early actions to reduce emissions before 2020 was held at COP24.

Developing countries presented their mitigation actions and highlighted key achievements and challenges in workshops under the theme Facilitative Sharing of Views (FSV). The sixth FSV workshop, for example, featured 10 countries, including Andorra, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Jordan, Lebanon, Mongolia, Namibia, Togo and Tunisia.

The experiences that were shared included actions and policies to decouple economic growth from the growth of greenhouse gas emissions to achieve the goals set out in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Many countries focused on identifying ways of reconciling their priorities for economic growth with emission reductions.

For example, China presented its main objectives on climate change for 2020. These are reducing by 18% the CO₂ emissions per unit of GDP relative to 2015, promoting low carbon development in key sector such energy, launching a national emissions trading system, strengthening domestic MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) systems and disseminating experiences from low-carbon pilots. From 2005 to 2015, China’s energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 34%, saving 1.57 billion tons of standard coal, equivalent to a reduction of 3.58 billion tons of CO₂-equivalent.

Six countries participated for the second time in this sixth FSV, having submitted their second biennial update report (BUR), thus demonstrating commitment to this multilateral process. Among these, some countries provided information on innovative approaches to promoting support of local governments in implementing national climate change policies. Some have also promoted private-public partnerships and incentive structures for encouraging climate technologies and innovation.

Some countries participating in the FSV process for the first time identified the capacity-building needs for implementing emission-reduction measures in specific sectors. Another capacity need that was highlighted was the development and consolidation of existing institutional arrangements to integrate climate change into national policies, programmes and plans.

Presentations during the FSV sessions demonstrated that developing countries are committed to enhancing their climate actions in the context of implementing National Determined Contributions and achieving low-carbon growth.

For more information on the facilitative sharing of views for developing countries click here.

The “multilateral assessment” sessions highlighted the efforts of 11 Parties with developed economies, including the European Union, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Slovakia.

The majority are confident that they will meet their 2020 quantified economy-wide reduction targets. For many of them, their 2020 emission levels are now expected to be lower than projected two years ago because of their climate actions.

To meet their targets, these countries are implementing a wide range of policies and measures to drive progress. Carbon pricing, in a form of carbon tax or emissions trading, was presented as the backbone of climate policies for most of these countries.

For example, the EU Emissions Trading System is the cornerstone of the EU's policy to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. The EU also presented other mechanisms to support the low- emission transition. One is the Innovation Fund for demonstrating innovative technologies in the energy and industrial sector. Another is the Modernization Fund for the power sector and wider energy systems and for facilitating a just transition in carbon-dependent regions in 10 lower income EU member states.

Canada has successfully introduced a carbon pricing benchmark as one of the pillars of its Pan-  Canadian framework on clean growth. The federal government engaged all jurisdictions, indigenous peoples, stakeholders and Canadians to develop this Pan-Canadian Framework.