Melissa Low

A key pillar of the Paris Agreement and an integral part of sustaining the success achieved at Paris COP21 is transparency. Biennial reporting currently forms the basis of understanding how countries are progressing towards their voluntary goals, and is central to achieving transparency. Embedded in the overall process of achieving a transparent environment is the thoughtful design of the reviewing, sharing and consultative process that is now rolled out. This policy brief examines
Singapore… Show more

A key pillar of the Paris Agreement and an integral part of sustaining the success achieved at Paris COP21 is transparency. Biennial reporting currently forms the basis of understanding how countries are progressing towards their voluntary goals, and is central to achieving transparency. Embedded in the overall process of achieving a transparent environment is the thoughtful design of the reviewing, sharing and consultative process that is now rolled out. This policy brief examines
Singapore and Vietnam’s country experiences of undergoing the International Consultation and Analysis (ICA) process and draws insights about the strengths of this process, how other Southeast Asian countries can engage with it and leverage it for benefit. Show less

At the heart of the COP21 Paris Climate Agreement is the goal of having all countries submit successive pledges to reduce emissions up to 2030 and every five years thereafter. This achievement was no doubt aided by the fact that ahead of the historic climate meetings in Paris, an unprecedented 184 countries had put forward their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) reflecting emissions reduction targets they will commit to reaching by 2025 or 2030. As a text based on consensus… Show more

At the heart of the COP21 Paris Climate Agreement is the goal of having all countries submit successive pledges to reduce emissions up to 2030 and every five years thereafter. This achievement was no doubt aided by the fact that ahead of the historic climate meetings in Paris, an unprecedented 184 countries had put forward their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) reflecting emissions reduction targets they will commit to reaching by 2025 or 2030. As a text based on consensus and compromise, this pact is by no means perfect; nonetheless, it is the best chance to set the world on a safer trajectory in terms of climate change and its adverse impacts. This policy brief examines the key elements of the Paris Agreement and offers views on what these elements may mean for Singapore. Show less

Singapore recently submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The 36 per cent emissions intensity target mentioned in the INDC is an unexpected change from Singapore’s 2020 target of 7–11 per cent emissions reduction below business as usual (BAU). The two types of targets and the different
implementation timeframes present a challenge for attempts to compare their relative ambitiousness. This… Show more

Singapore recently submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The 36 per cent emissions intensity target mentioned in the INDC is an unexpected change from Singapore’s 2020 target of 7–11 per cent emissions reduction below business as usual (BAU). The two types of targets and the different
implementation timeframes present a challenge for attempts to compare their relative ambitiousness. This policy brief examines how Singapore’s INDC fulfils the UNFCCC requirements which, apart from mitigation commitments, require that countries explain how they consider their contributions fair and ambitious in light of their respective national circumstances. Show less

There are high expectations that a new climate change agreement will be reached in Paris at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) on Climate Change this December. The stakes are high for France to show leadership and get the negotiating parties to agree on an effective global approach to address climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2020. On 19 March 2015, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat communicated an 86-page negotiating text to all the… Show more

There are high expectations that a new climate change agreement will be reached in Paris at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) on Climate Change this December. The stakes are high for France to show leadership and get the negotiating parties to agree on an effective global approach to address climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2020. On 19 March 2015, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat communicated an 86-page negotiating text to all the participating countries. With the text comprising thousands of combinations of options,
COP21 will be remembered either as a global turning point in the transition towards a low-carbon civilization or a tipping point towards runaway climate change. This policy brief provides an account
on the current developments leading up to COP21, particularly the role of the French government in preparing for this critical summit. Show less

Though the legal form of the climate change agreement expected to be reached in Paris at the 21st
Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in 2015 has not been conclusively determined, practitioners and academics alike assume that a legally binding form would have a positive effect on compliance. However, the commitments regime is currently pointed towards submission of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and compiling states’ political commitments to implement national… Show more

Though the legal form of the climate change agreement expected to be reached in Paris at the 21st
Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in 2015 has not been conclusively determined, practitioners and academics alike assume that a legally binding form would have a positive effect on compliance. However, the commitments regime is currently pointed towards submission of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and compiling states’ political commitments to implement national law and policy rather than binding treaty obligations. As a result, the new
approach to compliance would need to respond to the shift from a centralized standard setting to a
bottom-up approach. This policy brief examines the relationship between compliance and form in
the framework of the ongoing climate change negotiations. Show less

In recent years, energy-related CO2 emissions embodied in international trade and the driving forces have been widely studied by researchers using the environmental input–output framework. Most previous studies however, do not differentiate different input structures in manufacturing processing exports and normal exports.Using China as an example, this paper exemplifies how implications of results obtained using different export assumptions differ. The study posits that the utilization of… Show more

In recent years, energy-related CO2 emissions embodied in international trade and the driving forces have been widely studied by researchers using the environmental input–output framework. Most previous studies however, do not differentiate different input structures in manufacturing processing exports and normal exports.Using China as an example, this paper exemplifies how implications of results obtained using different export assumptions differ. The study posits that the utilization of traditional I–O model results in an overestimation of emissions embodied in processing exports and an underestimation in normal exports. The estimate of CO2 emissions embodied in China's exports drops by 32% when the extended I–O model is used. The choice of export assumption has more impact on the decomposition results for processing exports. The study further highlights that for a country with an export structure similar to China, it is meaningful to look into the impact of export assumption in embodied emission studies.
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