In recognition that the world is moving towards a new climate change regime that in many ways will be very different from the world in which the Kyoto Protocol has been operating, climate negotiators and other specialists have begun to focus their attention on developing a “framework for variable approaches” (FVA). It is hoped that this new framework will prove more adaptable to national circumstances and more capable of catalysing new ideas, at the regional, national or sub-national level. This paper examines the assumptions, objectives, scope, components and functions of an FVA, with a view to creating the right conditions in which a well-functioning global carbon market can emerge.
Andrei Marcu is Senior Advisor and Head of the Carbon Market Forum at CEPS. This report was prepared as a submission to the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA). It draws on discussions that took place among the members of the CEPS Carbon Market Forum (CMF).