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An essential component of the Paris Agreement’s transparency and accountability regime is the establishment in Article 15 of a mechanism, consisting of an expert based committee, to facilitate implementation and promote compliance.

The committee can and should play a key role in supporting and assisting Parties, both individually and collectively, to achieve the purpose and longterm goals of the Paris Agreement.

Parties are currently developing the modalities and procedures of the committee for adoption at the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24), which will meet in December 2018. This working paper analyzes options for key elements of these modalities to ensure the committee’s effective operation.

In developing the modalities and procedures, Parties can draw from the many lessons learned in other comparable regimes. However, to be effective, the modalities and procedures will need to be carefully tailored to the unique features and complementary processes of the Paris Agreement.

This working paper finds that striking a balance in the treatment of three central issues will be necessary in order to establish a committee capable of fulfilling its key role within the Paris Agreement. These issues are how individual Parties can be referred to the committee, the measures the committee can employ, and appropriate overarching operational guidance to the committee to define the boundaries of its discretion and thereby provide comfort to Parties.