The Germany-led Climate Club presented at the UN Cop 31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, this week guidelines for country-led platforms for industry decarbonisation in developed economies and emerging markets.
The guidelines were drawn up by the OECD, which hosts the Climate Club secretariat. They underline the importance of a country's decarbonisation plans being "firmly anchored" in existing national plans such as their climate plan under the Paris climate agreement, known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC).
Anchoring decarbonisation plans in overarching policy frameworks helps ensure they fit in with national priorities and broader economic development objectives, taking into consideration energy, infrastructure, innovation, skills and just transition, according to the guidance.
The guidance emphasises the importance of moving "beyond" project-by-project approaches towards building pipelines of bankable projects, and mobilising finance at scale.
The Climate Club, which now has 52 members including the EU — although neither China nor the US have joined — notes "growing interest" in such industry country platforms.
The Climate Club last week published guidance designed to advance the interoperability of carbon accounting approaches across countries and regions, focusing on industry products with a high carbon intensity and which are heavily traded internationally.
The guidance argues that as countries have different capabilities and act under different circumstances, interoperability is the best way forward, as it does not require convergence towards a single methodology or policy approach.
The guidance recommends countries make use of internationally recognised classification systems for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions where "appropriate". And countries or regions may require different time periods and technical support if they wish to align existing national systems with internationally recognised classifications, according to the guidelines.
The guidance also calls for the "most comprehensive GHG coverage where possible", extending beyond CO2 and based on internationally accepted reporting frameworks such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN climate arm the UNFCCC, and the GHG Protocol.
The guidance also recommends that systems start with companies covering direct emissions and indirect emissions associated with purchased energy, including electricity and other energy inputs, broadly corresponding to emissions scopes 1 and 2 in the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.
Coverage should "progressively" cover all relevant direct and indirect emissions where "possible and appropriate", without adding "unnecessary administrative burden", according to the guidance.
Countries should require their companies to adhere to a level of accuracy which meets policy design and implementation needs, but should consider proportionality, technical feasibility, and administrative capacity for measuring and reporting.
Cop 31 will separately see the launch of the third four-year phase of the industry decarbonisation initiative LeadIT, started in 2019 by Sweden and India and based at the Stockholm Environment Institute, on 17 November under the theme "Scaling Solutions, Strengthening Cooperation: A Third Phase for the Leadership Group for Industry Transition".
The new phase had been jointly suggested earlier this year by the prime ministers of Sweden and India. This sent "high level" signals to the world that the country leaders are serious about industry decarbonisation, a "crucial" message, LeadIT partnerships lead Felipe Sanchez said at a Climate Club event earlier this year.
Cop 31 this week saw the official launch of the Turkiye Industrial Decarbonization Investment Platform (Tidip), initiated in 2024 and led by the Turkish ministry of industry and technology. Tidip serves as a collaborative platform to support the country's industrial decarbonisation agenda, with an initial focus on iron and steel, aluminium, cement and clinker, and fertilisers.
Tidip partners now include the Islamic Development Bank, International Bank for Reconstruction & Development (IBRD), the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD), the World Bank Group through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asia Development Bank (ADB), the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
