Toward an Intergovernmental Transparency Arrangement for Fossil Fuel Production

To achieve the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals, a managed decline of fossil fuel production is necessary. Heeding this message, there are growing calls for an international governance framework to facilitate cooperation on winding down fossil fuel production. Promoting transparency is of major importance for international cooperation on winding down fossil fuel production effectively and equitably. Specifically, to align fossil fuel production with climate change goals, a better understanding of global trends in current and planned production is required. However, at present such information is incomplete, inconsistent, and scattered across a range of transparency initiatives, and much of this information is reported or collected largely on a voluntary basis. This article therefore explores how an intergovernmental transparency arrangement could be designed, drawing on examples of intergovernmental transparency arrangements in various areas of international law and governance. The article concludes that an intergovernmental transparency arrangement for fossil fuel production should: (1) allow for differentiation, but subject to minimum requirements; (2) provide capacity-building support for developing countries; (3) combine technical and peer review; (4) ensure that follow-up activities are linked to the outcome of the review process; and (5) provide for non-state actor participation.