The Secretary General of the OECD prepared a report for the meeting of G20 leaders on 9 and 10 September 2023 updating them on the work of the Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches (IFCMA).

The IFCMA which was launched in February 2023 aims to help optimise the impact of emissions reduction initiatives by using better data, information sharing and multilateral dialogue. The IFCMA is looking at the different approaches to carbon mitigation approaches and estimating their comparative effectiveness in terms of emissions reductions, aiming to increase understanding of the comparative impact of carbon mitigation approaches adopted worldwide and their combined global impact.

Through the IFCMA the member countries can track progress with climate change mitigation policies; access information on climate-relevant policies and the experience of other countries; share their own expertise; and provide input on how to improve the work of IFCMA. The member countries can enhance international collaboration on climate policies to reduce the risks of cross-border spill-overs and enhance the impact of carbon mitigation approaches in individual jurisdictions.

The report examines developments since the launch of IFCMA in February 2023. The initial meeting of IFCMA was attended by more than 600 senior officials from 104 countries and several international organisations. The meeting outlined the general direction of the future work of IFCMA that would involve consideration of different carbon mitigation approaches and projections relating to their impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

During Phase One which is expected to continue for around 30 months the focus is on developing and refining the methodologies for IFCMA’s work through four to six country pilot studies. These will develop a first version of the stocktake and mapping database; and develop a standard framework for a systematic stocktake of mitigation policies of IFCMA countries in a single database. A consistent methodological approach will be developed to estimate the effects of policy instruments and policy packages on greenhouse gas emissions.

In June 2023, the first technical-level meeting of the IFCMA was held. The meeting considered methodological approaches for stocktaking market- and non-market-based policies and mapping them to the emissions they cover. There was discussion of the technical challenges related to the work to estimate effects of individual policies or policy packages on emissions as well as broader economic impacts.

Next steps

The next meeting of the IFCMA on 14 and 15 November 2023 will include the first inclusive multilateral dialogue and consideration of technical notes on specific methodological issues. In 2024 there will be a progress report on the pilot studies. A carbon intensity report will be produced exploring methodological approaches for computing the carbon intensity of goods and industrial sectors. In Phase Two the IFCMA will apply the stocktaking and mapping to estimate the impacts of policies on emissions and will continue to refine the methodologies.

The Phase One methodology reports will be completed in 2025. Also, the first IFCMA database will be delivered with details of the mitigation policies of the member countries of IFCMA.