International Institutions & Climate Governance

IPCC:

The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change is established by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). It provides the scientific assessments and socio-economic implications of climate change. It is a review & coordinating organisation that relies on a network of scientists from all over the world. It has 3 Working Groups (WG) and one task force.

• WG I deals with "The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change" 

• WG II with "Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" 

• WG III with "Mitigation of Climate Change"

• Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories develops and refines a methodology for the calculation and reporting of national GHG emissions and removals.

Working Groups also meet at the Plenary at the level of Representatives of Governments. IPCC provides Assessment Reports (AR) at regular intervals, the Fifth AR is underway. It also produces Special reports, Methodology reports, Technical papers and supporting material.

UNFCCC:

The United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, established after the 1992 Earth Summit. It is an international convention (i.e. treaty mechanism) of the signatory nations and can in turn formulate any political and technical mechanism to deal with climate change, such as Kyoto protocol.  Annual sessions are called COP (Conference of Parties), most recent of which is COP 17 held at Durban.
The climate action work progresses on two tracks, the Long-term cooperative action LCA track for all UNFCCC parties and the Kyoto Protocol KP track for the signatories of the Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in 2015
UNFCCC is consists of a preamble and 26 articles outlining the obligations of the parties such as publishing national GHG inventories etc. The parties are categorised into Annex I, non-Annex I and Annex II countries, which is very important in climate negotiations.
• Annex-I: OECD countries in 1992, plus countries with economies in transition (EIT), including the Russian Federation, the Baltic States, and several Central and Eastern European States (e.g. USA, UK, Latvia, Russia etc.)
• Annex-II: OECD members of Annex I, but not the EIT Parties. They are required to provide financial resources and transfer of technology to enable emissions reduction in developing countries and help them adapt to adverse effects of climate change. (e.g. USA, UK, France, Germany etc.)
• Non-Annex I: Countries especially vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Include developing countries and others that rely heavily on income from fossil fuel production and commerce. The rationale is oil exporting countries are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change response measures. (e.g. BRICS nations, Saudi Arabia, Honduras, Benin etc.)


OBSERVERS TO UNFCCC:
UN bodies and funds like UNDP, UNEP, UNCTAD, IPCC and the GEF. Inter-governmental organisations like OECD, IEA and NGOs like WWF, OXFAM etc.