The Machinery of the Framework Convention

In one line

Five articles create the institutions that have run the climate negotiation for more than thirty years: a conference, a secretariat, two subsidiary bodies and a financial mechanism.

In exam wording: articles 7 to 11 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992 establish the Conference of the Parties as the supreme body of the Convention, a secretariat, a Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, a Subsidiary Body for Implementation, and a financial mechanism for the provision of financial resources on a grant or concessional basis including for the transfer of technology, whose operation is entrusted to an existing international entity accountable to the Conference of the Parties.

Article 7: the Conference of the Parties

Paragraph 1 establishes it. Paragraph 2 makes it the supreme body of the Convention and requires it to keep under regular review the implementation of the Convention and any related legal instruments that it may adopt, and, within its mandate, to make the decisions necessary to promote effective implementation. Its listed functions include:

• examining the obligations of the Parties and the institutional arrangements in the light of the objective, experience gained and evolving scientific knowledge;
• promoting and facilitating the exchange of information;
• facilitating, at the request of two or more Parties, the coordination of measures;
• promoting and guiding comparable methodologies for inventories;
• assessing implementation by all Parties, and the overall effect of the measures taken;
• considering and adopting reports on implementation and making them public;
• making recommendations on any matters necessary for the implementation of the Convention;
• seeking to mobilise financial resources;
• establishing subsidiary bodies as deemed necessary;
• reviewing reports of the subsidiary bodies and providing guidance to them;
• agreeing upon and adopting rules of procedure and financial rules; and
• seeking the services and cooperation of, and information provided by, competent international organisations and bodies.

Paragraphs 3 to 6 deal with rules of procedure, ordinary and extraordinary sessions, and observers: the United Nations, its specialized agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and any body qualified in matters covered by the Convention, whether national or international, governmental or non-governmental, may be represented as an observer unless at least one third of the Parties object.

That observer provision is why environmental organisations attend the conferences in such numbers, and why a candidate should not say that non-governmental organisations have no role.

Article 8: the secretariat

Its functions are to arrange sessions and provide them with services; compile and transmit reports; facilitate assistance to Parties, particularly developing country Parties, in compiling and communicating information; prepare reports on its activities; ensure coordination with the secretariats of other relevant international bodies; enter into administrative and contractual arrangements; and perform other functions specified by the Conference of the Parties.