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Submission to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (“SBSTA”) Methodological guidance and modalities for measuring, reporting and verifying (“MRV”) of REDD+
The document argues for a transparent, country-driven MRV system for REDD+ that integrates carbon monitoring with social and environmental safeguards. It emphasizes the need for clear definitions of 'forest' using FAO categories to distinguish between the five REDD+ activities and calls for the full participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the MRV process. The submission also highlights the necessity of a common reporting format for REDD+ finance to ensure transparency and accountability, particularly regarding 'new and additional' funding and the Green Climate Fund safeguards.
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Document type: Statement
CBD Request to WIPO on the Interrelation of Access to Genetic Resources and Disclosure Requirements
CIEL argues that WIPO's response to the CBD must recognize the CBD's leading role in biodiversity and focus on creating mandatory international rules to prevent the misappropriation of genetic resources. The document criticizes the first draft for failing to emphasize the prevention of intellectual property system misuse and for not sufficiently incorporating the views of developing countries and NGOs. CIEL suggests that equitable principles, such as the 'unclean hands' doctrine, should be used to justify mandatory disclosure requirements and sanctions for non-compliance to ensure that intellectual property rights do not reward inequitable conduct.
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Document type: Statement
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL TRADING SYSTEM
The document provides a detailed breakdown of how WTO documents are restricted or derestricted, categorizing them into automatic, scheduled, and unscheduled processes. It argues that the current system allows members to keep politically sensitive documents secret indefinitely and ensures that information is only released after policy decisions are finalized. The authors recommend a shift toward a presumption of immediate public availability, except for proprietary or national security information, and propose a formal agreement to grant NGOs and individuals the right to participate in WTO meetings and dispute settlement procedures.
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Document type: Guide
As the World Burns: Negotiating the Framework Convention on Climate Change
The document analyzes the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, detailing the scientific consensus on global warming and the diplomatic tensions between industrialized and developing nations during its creation. It highlights the lack of binding emissions targets and the complexities of the financial mechanism and technology transfer.
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Document type: Research paper
The Export of Banned Pesticides to Africa and Central America
The report argues that pesticides banned in their country of manufacture are classified as 'hazardous wastes' under the Bamako Convention and the Central American Agreement. Because many importing nations in Africa and Central America have monist legal systems or specific domestic laws incorporating these definitions, the report concludes that exporting such substances from Basel Convention parties (including the EU, UK, and Switzerland) violates the Basel Convention, international customary law, and the extraterritorial human rights obligation to protect the right to health.
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Document type: Report
Remedy and Reparations for Climate Harm: The Human Rights Case
The report argues that the climate crisis is a human rights crisis, creating a legal obligation for States and corporations to provide effective remedy and reparations. It critiques the UNFCCC's voluntary approach to loss and damage, highlighting how it fails to uphold human rights standards and is hampered by debt injustice in the Global South. The document outlines legal pathways through international courts (ICJ, ITLOS, IACtHR) and national litigation to enforce accountability. Finally, it proposes six guiding principles for climate reparations—victim-centric, inclusive, intersectional, adequate, accountable, and trackable—drawing on lessons from other large-scale harm mechanisms.
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Document type: Report
Verein Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz and Others v Switzerland, Application no. 53600/20
The document provides a scientific and legal basis for the European Court of Human Rights to assess State due diligence regarding climate change. It emphasizes the urgency of limiting warming to 1.5°C to avoid irreversible damage and tipping points, noting that current global emissions trends are insufficient. It highlights severe health risks in Europe, including heat-related mortality, and argues that under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC, States have a 'best efforts' obligation to pursue the highest possible ambition in emissions reductions. ClientEarth asserts that failure to meet international climate commitments constitutes a prima facie violation of human rights obligations, and that adaptation measures cannot substitute for necessary mitigation.
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Document type: Legal commentary
Making ambition enforceable: Enshrining NDCs 3.0 into Framework Climate Laws
ClientEarth advocates for the implementation of comprehensive framework climate laws (FCLs) to bridge the gap between political ambition in NDCs and domestic action. The brief highlights that current climate commitments are insufficient, with a projected temperature rise of 2.4°C to 2.6°C even if existing NDCs are met. It calls on countries to submit science-driven NDCs by February 2025 and to enshrine these in binding national laws by COP30. The document also details recent international legal precedents from the ICJ, ITLOS, and ECHR that strengthen the legal obligations of states to protect human rights and the environment from climate harm.
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Document type: Policy brief
Energy Charter Treaty Reform: Why withdrawal is an option
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is criticized for allowing fossil fuel investors to use Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) to challenge climate policies, such as the Netherlands' phase-out of fossil fuels by 2030. While the EU has attempted to modernize the ECT, the requirement for unanimity among 56 contracting states has stalled progress. The document argues that withdrawal is a viable alternative, provided that the 20-year 'survival clause'—which continues to protect existing investments after withdrawal—is neutralized. Using the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), the authors argue that a group of states can legally modify the treaty 'inter se' to extinguish this clause because the ECT consists of reciprocal bilateral relations rather than obligations binding on all parties. Such a coordinated withdrawal would immediately end treaty-based fossil fuel protection and ISDS for the withdrawing states, reducing legal risks and aligning with EU climate objectives.
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Document type: Research paper
Briefing 2: Transactions on Forest Carbon
The document outlines how forest carbon is monetised through compliance and voluntary markets, detailing Ghana's role as an early adopter of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. It describes Ghana's regulatory pathway for carbon projects, highlights key transactions like the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme and the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project, and identifies risks such as double counting and bargaining power asymmetries. The briefing concludes with recommendations to codify regulations, standardise transaction documents, and target high-integrity market segments.
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Document type: Briefing
Appel au renforcement de la formation de tous les professionnels de santé dans le domaine des changements climatiques
The WHO-Civil Society Working Group on Climate and Health Action calls for the systemic integration of climate and health competencies into medical and health professional curricula. The document argues that health professionals have an ethical duty to address climate-related health risks, noting that current training is often lacking or student-led. It proposes four key actions: integrating competencies into curricula and professional development, fostering multisectoral training, increasing funding for research and education, and sharing pedagogical resources. The letter includes an appendix of existing courses in the Caribbean, Latin America, Brazil, and Switzerland, as well as a core competencies framework developed by the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education.
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Document type: Statement
ClimaTalk COP30 Debrief WEEK 1
The first week of COP30 was characterized by significant friction between developed and developing nations over finance, trade measures, and the 1.5C temperature goal. While some progress was made in operationalizing the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage and advancing Article 6 carbon market standards, negotiations on the Just Transition Work Programme and the Gender Action Plan stalled due to disagreements over terminology and the role of unilateral trade measures. The Brazilian Presidency launched the Belem Health Action Plan and proposed a framework for synergies between the three Rio Conventions, though many thematic areas remain bracketed heading into the second week.
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Document type: Briefing
ClimaTalk COP30 Debrief WEEK 2
The COP30 Week 2 debrief details the adoption of the 'Global Mutirão' cover decision, which calls for tripling adaptation finance by 2035 but omits references to fossil fuels and deforestation. Key outcomes include the recommendation for a Just Transition mechanism (BAM) to be operationalized in 2026, the transfer of $26.8 million to the Article 6.4 PACM, and the adoption of the Belém Gender Action Plan. However, significant tensions persisted regarding unilateral trade measures, the 1.5°C temperature goal, and the lack of concrete targets in climate finance and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).
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Document type: Briefing
Article 6 carbon markets at COP29
Carbon Market Watch argues that current Article 6.2 rules are too minimal, creating a "Wild West framework" for international carbon markets. The briefing recommends mandatory authorisation statements for cooperative approaches, stricter definitions of 'first transfer' to prevent delayed reporting, and the prohibition of authorisation revocations to avoid double counting. For Article 6.4, it urges the CMA to provide guidance to the Supervisory Body on minimum durability standards for removals, science-based risk assessments for reversals, and more robust additionality requirements, including mandatory common practice analysis.
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Document type: Briefing
Key elements for fair and effective emissions trading systems that work for people and climate
Carbon Market Watch outlines ten key elements for effective carbon pricing, arguing that such systems must be integrated into a broader policy mix, utilize absolute declining caps, and eliminate free allocations and offsets. The briefing emphasizes the need for transparency, the reinvestment of revenues into climate action and vulnerable communities, and the use of carbon border levies to prevent leakage without protecting polluting industries. It concludes that carbon pricing is a tool to be used alongside regulations and democratic engagement, rather than a standalone solution for decarbonization.
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Document type: Briefing
Background Briefing: Aviation under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)
The briefing examines the impact of aviation emissions and the failure of international measures, specifically CORSIA, to align with the Paris Agreement. It details the 'stop-the-clock' derogation that paused EU ETS enforcement for flights entering and leaving Europe and warns that continuing this exemption risks the EU's 2030 climate targets and increases the oversupply of emission allowances.
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Document type: Briefing
Recommendations related to the role of carbon markets in the Paris Agreement
Carbon Market Watch argues for stringent rules to prevent double counting, 'hot air' credits, and the inclusion of REDD-plus in carbon markets. It advocates for a 'net atmospheric benefit' through discounting, the establishment of a share of proceeds for adaptation and loss and damage, and the integration of a human rights-based approach into the core agreement to protect vulnerable populations.
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Document type: Policy brief
人と気候の両方に役立つ、公平で効果的な 排出量取引制度の重要なポイント
The report by Carbon Market Watch outlines a framework for 'carbon pricing done right,' arguing that such systems must be integrated into broader policy packages and based on strict emission caps to be effective. It emphasizes the 'polluter pays principle,' warning against free allocations and offsets, which it claims can weaken price signals and lead to greenwashing. The document advocates for transparency, the reinvestment of revenues into climate action and vulnerable communities, and a cautious approach to carbon leakage and border adjustment mechanisms to avoid protectionism while ensuring climate justice.
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Document type: Report
致部长和联合国气候变化公约(UNFCCC)相关方代表们的公开信
The document is an open letter addressed to ministers and UNFCCC representatives during COP-19. Signed by 33 civil society networks and individuals from 87 countries, it argues that carbon markets must not compromise the ambition of climate mitigation efforts. The authors call for a comprehensive climate agreement by 2015, specifically demanding the rejection of pilot phase trading under the Diversified Framework Approach (FVA), the removal of non-additional projects and coal power from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and the establishment of international verification to prevent double counting.
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Document type: Statement
The impact of the Paris agreement on the EU’s climate policies
The policy brief outlines seven areas where the EU should enhance its climate policies following the Paris agreement. Key recommendations include increasing the 2020 emission reduction target to 30%, revising the 2050 low-carbon roadmap to meet the 1.5°C objective, and adopting 5-year ambition cycles. It also calls for the phase-out of free pollution permits for industry, the inclusion of aviation and maritime sectors in the EU ETS, and the use of the Sustainable Development Mechanism to finance emission reductions in developing countries without relying on offsetting.
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Document type: Policy brief