Surat Saidina Ali Bin Abi Talib Kepada Malik Al-Ashtar.

Ketahuilah wahai Malik, sesungguhnya aku mengirimkan kamu ke suatu daerah di mana kerajaan yang adil dan tidak adil telah wujud sebelum kamu. Rakyat akan menilai tindak tanduk kamu seperti mana kamu pada kebiasaannya menilai tindak tanduk pemerintah sebelum kamu. Mereka akan berbicara tentang kamu sebagaimana menjadi kebiasaannya kamu membicarakan mengenai pemerintah tersebut. Yang bertakwa di kalangan kamu adalah mereka yang ditentukan oleh Allah SWT sebagaimana yang disampaikan oleh Rasul-rasulNya.

Jadikanlah apa-apa tindakan kamu sebagai tindakan orang yang soleh. Kawallah nafsu kamu dan kekangilah jiwamu daripada apa yang tidak halal bagimu, kerana menahan jiwa adalah supaya ia berlaku adil sama ada suka ataupun tidak suka. Semaikan hati kamu dengan rasa belas kasihan, kasih sayang, baik hati kepada rakyat kamu. Jangan kamu tunjukkan wajah kamu seperti binatang buas dan menganggap mereka mangsa yang mudah dibaham, kerana mereka sebenarnya tergolong dua golongan: sama ada mereka saudara seagama dengan kamu atau mereka adalah makhluk Tuhan seperti kamu juga. Kesilapan telah menyebabkan mereka tidak sedar bahawa kelemahan itu telah menguasai diri mereka dengan melakukan perbuatan jahat dengan sengaja atau tidak sengaja. Berikanlah mereka keampunan dan kemaafan sebagaimana kamu berharap Tuhan juga akan memaafkan kamu. Kamu lebih tinggi daripada mereka, dan yang melantik kamu tinggi daripada kamu, dan Tuhan lebih tinggi daripada orang yang melantik kamu. Tuhan meminta kamu memenuhi keperluan mereka, dan Tuhan menguji kamu melalui mereka.

Jangan kamu ingkar perintah Tuhan, lantaran kamu tidak mempunyai kuasa terhadap pembalasanNya, juga kamu tidak dapat melaksanakan pengampunan dan kasih sayangNya. Jangan berasa kecewa kerana memberi maaf atau bergembira apabila menjatuhkan hukuman, dan jangan terburu-buru (untuk bertindak) mengikut hati kalau kamu ada jalan yang lebih baik. Jangan sekali-kali berkata, “Aku diberi kuasa, aku memberi perintah, dan aku mesti dipatuhi,” kerana pastilah itu adalah korupsi hati, melemahkan agama, membawa perubahan nasib seseorang. Jika kuasa yang kamu miliki menjadikan kamu angkuh dan bangga, maka bayangkanlah pula akan kehebatan kekuasaan Tuhan ke atas kamu dan kuasaNya ke atas kamu yang tidak kamu mengawalnya. Ini akan mengendurkan kedegilan kamu, menahan rasa amarah kamu dan ini akan mengembalikan kewarasan kamu. Berwaspadalah daripada menyaingi Tuhan dari segi kehebatanNya dan menyamakan diri engkau dengan Dia dari segi kuasa mutlakNya, kerana Tuhan akan memusnahkan orang yang zalim dan akan memberi malu kepada orang yang sombong.

Hendaklah kamu, ahli keluarga kamu dan mereka yang kamu senangi, berlaku adil kepada Tuhan dan kepada manusia. Jika kamu tidak berlaku adil, kamu telah melakukan kesalahan. Dan bagi mereka yang melakukan kesalahan kepada hamba Allah, dia harus berdepan dengan Allah bukan sahaja berdepan dengan hamba Allah tersebut. Allah menjadikan batal dan tidak sah hujah mereka yang menentangNya. Orang itu dianggap musuh Allah sehinggalah dia insaf dan bertaubat. Sesungguhnya berlarutan melakukan kesalahan akan menyebabkan terhindarnya rahmat Allah dan bencana daripadaNya disegerakan kerana Allah mendengar doa mereka yang tertindas dan sesungguhnya Allah sentiasa memerhatikan mereka yang melakukan kemungkaran.”

Sustainable Development Goal indicators #1

 Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day

1.1.1 Proportion of population below the international poverty line, by sex, age, employment status and geographical location (urban/rural) 

1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions  

1.2.1 Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age

1.2.2 Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions

1.3 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

1.3.1 Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, workinjury victims and the poor and the vulnerable  

1.4 By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance

1.4.1 Proportion of population living in households with access to basic services

1.4.2 Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure 

1.5 By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters .

1.5.1 Number of deaths, missing persons and persons affected by disaster per 100,000 peoplea

1.5.2 Direct disaster economic loss in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP)

1.5.3 Number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies

1.a Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions 

1.a.1 Proportion of resources allocated by the government directly to poverty reduction programmes

1.a.2 Proportion of total government spending on essential services (education, health and social protection) 

1.b Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions 

1.b.1 Proportion of government recurrent and capital spending to sectors that disproportionately benefit women, the poor and vulnerable groups 

Carbon markets in ASEAN

Across ASEAN – a region rich in biodiversity, forests and renewable energy sources such as hydro, solar and geothermal, investments in all of which could generate a significant number of ITMOs – several member states have taken steps to implement both voluntary and compliance markets (see table 1). In March 2021, Indonesia launched a pilot voluntary ETS for the power sector and is planning to start a national compliance system by 2024. Vietnam passed a law in November 2020 to create a national compliance system by 1 January 2022. Legislation to establish a national ETS covering large emitting sectors is under consideration in the Philippines. Thailand is considering establishing a national ETS. These developments follow the establishment of compliance carbon markets elsewhere in the Asia and Pacific, including national ETSs in South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Kazakhstan. China launched its own national trading scheme covering more than 2200 coal and gas power plants in February 2021 following a 10-year trial period in seven local pilot carbon markets. In addition, subnational systems exist in Japan (Tokyo and Saitama).

Overview of carbon markets in ASEAN. Source: author’s own compilation. 

As the most mature of the carbon markets in Asia, the Korea ETS (K-ETS) sets an example for future developments in ASEAN. Launched in 2013, K-ETS now covers 73.5% of domestic GHG emissions This system allows financial intermediaries to participate in the secondary market and trade emissions allowances and converted carbon offsets on the Korea Exchange (KRX)19. By switching from physical 'over-the-counter' markets to exchange trading, new market participants do not need to invest in establishing bilateral trading, credit and settlement relationships with incumbents but can instead trade through the exchange as a single point of entry, creating opportunities for a diverse group of market players ClimateSeed provides an example of how an integrated VCM may work. With access to proprietary data and a standardized methodology to monitor the effectiveness of nature-based projects, carbon offset ratings platform Sylvera is able to enhance and standardize the due diligence performed by players like ClimateSeed, allowing for a greater level of transparency and confidence for clients. Furthermore, by relying on its technology and efficiencies of scale, it can – reduce the cost of monitoring the projects on an ongoing basis.

What is the Current State of Blockchain Technology in the Carbon Market?

 The use of blockchain technology in carbon market trading is still relatively new, and many studies are being conducted around the world to determine the technology’s suitability for improving carbon trading. A 2022 study revealed that companies nowadays are more willing to participate in carbon pilot projects using blockchain technology.

Another study identified 39 organisations that are developing blockchain solutions for carbon markets across two use cases: emissions-trading schemes and voluntary carbon markets. Among them are IBM and Ben&Jerry’s, both of which recently collaborated with blockchain companies to make carbon offsets more accessible to everyday consumers. IBM is also collaborating with Veridium Labs to develop digital tokens to facilitate the trading of carbon credits. 

Poseidon is a pioneer in voluntary carbon markets, focusing on retail integration and pinning carbon credits to everyday purchases. CEO Laszlo Giricz explains: “When we realized that using the Stellar blockchain transactions could be done in three seconds and at such a low cost, we realised we could now transact in grams of carbon. Carbon credits could be incorporated into retail transactions at the point of sale for the first time.”

Other companies and organisations that are using or developing blockchain technology in their carbon credits trading include ClimateTrade, AirCarbon Exchange,  Powerledger,  JustCarbon, Likvidi,  Phaeton Blockchain, Carbonex, Blockchain for Climate Foundation.

Although blockchain technology is still in its infancy and early stages of development, it has the potential to be the best technology in the near future for addressing the challenges of transparency in carbon trading

How Can Blockchain Technology Improve Transparency in Carbon Market Trading?

Carbon markets have traditionally been centralised, impenetrable, and illiquid, resulting in very limited market participation. Blockchain has the potential to expand existing carbon markets and create new ones for a wider range of stakeholders, including small businesses and individuals. The technology records transactions publicly and permanently, helping to promote traceability and honesty.

Blockchain technology has the potential to improve carbon market trading in the following ways:

1. Building Consumer Trust and Preventing Greenwashing

One of the greatest challenges in carbon markets trading is the inaccuracy and unreliability of data. Many businesses have fallen victim to greenwashing. However, blockchain technology offers a much more transparent and distributed method of keeping track of transactions, giving consumers a detailed audit record for all the parts of a product across all phases of its lifecycle.

2. Eradicating Double Counting

Blockchain has the potential to remove the possibility of duplicate counting – a situation where two parties claim the same emission reduction or carbon removal – and can strengthen the reliability, which decreases energy usage and will attract the participation of private finance, microfinance, and crowdfunding.

3. Effective Tracking of Carbon Markets

Blockchain can record a carbon credit’s complete journey, from creation through purchase to retirement. With the help of transparent credit tracking made simple by blockchain technology, voluntary markets might be expanded and made more accessible. The potential for aggregating small purchases via a transparent distributed ledger could assist regular consumers in reducing their environmental impacts.

The technology can offer more transparency regarding tracking GHG emissions and make it easier to track and report emission reductions, thereby addressing possible double counting issues. It could serve as a tool to monitor the progress made in implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, as well as in company targets.

4. Streamline and Accelerate Carbon Trading 

As opposed to either centralised or decentralised networks, the blockchain prevents monopolisation dominance of the system by eliminating the need for middlemen and enabling more streamlined and direct pathways for buying and selling credits. It can reduce the time required for clearance and trade approval by eliminating the requirement for intermediaries such as clearing houses. The use of smart contracts can accelerate the buying and selling of carbon credits by digitalising the negotiation and agreement process.

5. Enhance Carbon Emission Trading

Blockchain technology has the potential to enhance the carbon asset trade system. All the credible information gathered from a blockchain can assist businesses or organisations in identifying their issues and the reasons why they have not been eco-friendly yet. As such, they will find it simpler to define what being eco-friendly means for them and to establish suitable ways of achieving it.

6. Facilitate Clean Energy Trading and Ensure Appropriate Use of Funds

When it comes to finding accurate information about carbon credit, such as validation and verification, there is a credibility problem. Blockchain technology can address that by enabling the creation of systems for peer-to-peer renewable energy trading. Consumers would be able to buy, sell, or trade renewable energy with one another by using tokens or tradable digital assets representing a specific amount of energy production.

7. Enhance Climate Finance Flows

Blockchain technology has the ability to accelerate the development of crowdfunding and peer-to-peer financial transactions in support of climate action, while also ensuring that funding is assigned to projects in a transparent manner. Blockchain will ensure that the revenue generated is used solely to address carbon emission issues and not to fund any alternative political agenda. 

What is the Current State of Blockchain Technology in the Carbon Market?

The use of blockchain technology in carbon market trading is still relatively new, and many studies are being conducted around the world to determine the technology’s suitability for improving carbon trading. A 2022 study revealed that companies nowadays are more willing to participate in carbon pilot projects using blockchain technology.

Another study identified 39 organisations that are developing blockchain solutions for carbon markets across two use cases: emissions-trading schemes and voluntary carbon markets. Among them are IBM and Ben&Jerry’s, both of which recently collaborated with blockchain companies to make carbon offsets more accessible to everyday consumers. IBM is also collaborating with Veridium Labs to develop digital tokens to facilitate the trading of carbon credits. 

Poseidon is a pioneer in voluntary carbon markets, focusing on retail integration and pinning carbon credits to everyday purchases. CEO Laszlo Giricz explains: “When we realized that using the Stellar blockchain transactions could be done in three seconds and at such a low cost, we realised we could now transact in grams of carbon. Carbon credits could be incorporated into retail transactions at the point of sale for the first time.”

Other companies and organisations that are using or developing blockchain technology in their carbon credits trading include ClimateTrade, AirCarbon Exchange, Powerledger, JustCarbon, Likvidi, Phaeton Blockchain, Carbonex, Blockchain for Climate Foundation.

Although blockchain technology is still in its infancy and early stages of development, it has the potential to be the best technology in the near future for addressing the challenges of transparency in carbon trading.

What is Blockchain Technology and How Does It Work?

The concept of “chained blocks” was initially proposed to solve the double-spending problem in Bitcoin; as a result, the term “blockchain” progressively became more generalised. Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology that links users together online to produce a trustworthy transaction record without the need for a third party. It is a database that stores records but, unlike a regular database, a blockchain secures data in a way that makes system manipulation, tampering and falsification impossible.

In blockchain technology, the data are stored in “blocks”, which are then sequentially arranged and interlinked to create an unbreakable chain. Each block in a chain comprises three basic components: data, a nonce (a 32-bit whole number), and a hash (a 256-bit number coupled to the nonce). The cryptographic hash is produced by a nonce at the beginning of a chain. Unless it is mined, the data in the block is regarded as signed and permanently bound to the nonce and hash.

When a transaction occurs, it is registered as a “block” of data, and each block is linked to the ones preceding and following it, forming an irrevocable chain referred to as a blockchain. Each additional block reinforces the previous block’s verification, and thus the entire blockchain. This makes the blockchain tamper-evident, delivering the critical power of robustness.

GHG Reduction Programs & Strategies

 A wide range of strategies are available to help organizations reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Below are a list of resources and guides to help your organization identify and implement GHG reduction opportunities.

On this page

• Energy Efficiency
• Renewable Energy
• Supply Chain
• Waste Reduction and Diversion Strategies
• Reduce Methane Emissions
• Increase Fuel Efficiency in Transportation and Logistics
• Additional Resources

Energy Efficiency

U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program: Through its partnerships with more than 15,000 private and public sector organizations, ENERGY STAR delivers the technical information and tools that organizations and consumers need to choose energy-efficient solutions and best management practices.

• Buildings & Plants: ENERGY STAR certifies top performing commercial buildings and manufacturing plants and provides an innovative energy performance rating system which businesses have already used for more than 96,000 buildings across the country. ENERGY STAR's Portfolio Manager is an online tool to measure and track energy and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Use it to benchmark the performance of one building or across an organization's entire portfolio of buildings.
• Small Businesses: ENERGY STAR offers tools and resources to help small businesses improve their financial performance by reducing energy waste and energy costs.
• Products: ENERGY STAR certifies products in more than 70 categories that use less energy, save money, and help protect the environment.
• ENERGY STAR tips to save energy at work. 
• U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provides a variety of programs that identify opportunities for integrating energy-efficiency measures into your facility. 
• Buildings Performance Database (BPD) unlocks the power of building energy performance data. The platform enables users to perform statistical analysis on an anonymous dataset of tens of thousands of commercial and residential buildings from across the country. Users can compare performance trends among similar buildings to identify and prioritize cost-saving energy efficiency improvements and assess the range of likely savings from these improvements.
• Standard Energy Efficiency Data (SEED) platform is a software tool that provides a standardized format for collecting, storing, and analyzing building energy performance information about large portfolios. The platform provides an easy, flexible, and cost effective method to analyze data about large portfolios of buildings and demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency.

U.S. EPA’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership (CHP) promotes the use of combined heat and power (CHP) to reduce the environmental impacts of power generation, increase your facility's operational efficiency, and decrease energy costs. The Partnership works closely with energy users, the CHP industry, state and local governments, and other clean energy stakeholders to facilitate the development of new projects and to promote their environmental and economic benefits.

• CHP Project Development Handbook provides information, tools, and hints on combined heat and power (CHP) project development, CHP technologies, and the resources of the EPA CHP Partnership.

U.S. EPA’s State and Local Climate and Energy Program helps state, local, and tribal governments develop policies and programs that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy costs, improve air quality and public health, and help achieve economic development goals. EPA provides proven, cost–effective best practices, peer exchange opportunities, and analytical tools.

Renewable Energy

U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership (GPP) is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use. The Partnership currently has more than 1,300 Partner organizations voluntarily using billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually. GPP supports the organizational procurement of green power by offering expert advice, technical support, tools, and resources. Green power is electricity produced from a subset of renewable resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and low-impact hydro. Partnering with EPA can help your organization reduce its carbon footprint and communicate its leadership to key stakeholders.

• Guide to Purchasing Green Power provides current and potential buyers of green power with information about green power purchasing, including different types of green power products, the benefits of green power purchasing, and how to capture the greatest benefit from your purchase. The Guide is the product of a cooperative effort between the EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the World Resources Institute, and the Center for Resource Solutions.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Innovations in Voluntary Renewable Energy Procurement: Methods for Expanding Access and Lowering Cost for Communities, Governments, and Businesses (pdf) explores five innovative options for voluntarily procuring renewable energy generation or systems. These methods can be replicated by a variety of stakeholders—including local governments, not-for-profit organizations, businesses, and utilities.

Supply Chain

U.S. EPA’s Green Suppliers Network works with large manufacturers to engage their suppliers in low-cost technical reviews to identify strategies for improving process lines, using materials more efficiently, and reducing waste. Working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP), the Green Suppliers Network helps small and medium-sized manufacturers stay competitive and profitable while reducing their impact on the environment.

Managing Supply Chain Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Lessons Learned for the Road Ahead (pdf) (8.66 MB, December 2010) highlights lessons learned by early movers that engaged their suppliers in GHG management.

Additional resources listed on The Center's Supply Chain webpage.

Waste Reduction and Diversion Strategies

U.S. EPA’s Resources for Waste Reduction and Recycling provides resources related to waste reduction and recycling in the workplace, including guidance on starting or expanding a recycling collection program, initiatives to reduce everyday trash, and frameworks for food recovery programs.

U.S. EPA’s WaterSense program partners with manufacturers, retailers and distributors, and utilities to bring WaterSense labeled products to the marketplace and make it easy to purchase high-performing, water-efficient products. WaterSense also partners with professional certifying organizations to promote water–efficient landscape irrigation practices.

Reduce Methane Emissions

U.S. EPA’s AgSTAR program promotes the use of biogas recovery systems to reduce methane emissions from livestock waste. AgSTAR assists those who enable, purchase, or implement anaerobic digesters by identifying project benefits, risks, options, and opportunities. AgSTAR provides information and participates in events to create a supporting environment for anaerobic digester implementation.

U.S. EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) promotes the use of landfill gas as a renewable, green energy source. Landfill gas is the natural by-product of the decomposition of solid waste in landfills and is comprised primarily of carbon dioxide and methane. LMOP forms partnerships with communities, landfill owners, utilities, power marketers, states, project developers, tribes, and non-profit organizations to overcome barriers to project development by helping them assess project feasibility, find financing, and market the benefits of project development to the community.

U.S. EPA’s Natural Gas STAR Program provides a framework for companies with U.S. oil and gas operations to implement methane reducing technologies and practices and document their voluntary emission reduction activities.

U.S. EPA’s Natural Gas STAR Methane Challenge Program recognizes oil and natural gas companies that make specific and transparent commitments to reduce methane emissions.

Increase Fuel Efficiency in Transportation and Logistics

U.S. EPA’s SmartWay is a public/private collaboration between EPA and the freight transportation industry that helps freight shippers, carriers, and logistics companies improve fuel-efficiency and save money. Acquiring U.S. EPA Certified SmartWay light-duty vehicles can help improve the overall fuel economy performance of a light-duty fleet.

Additional Resources

Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Councilis a non-profit organization whose mission is to support and recognize leadership procurement.

What are market mechanisms?

 When countries set a limit, or cap, on greenhouse gas emissions, they create something of value: the right to emit. What happens if we apply market principles and rules? The countries or companies that reduce emissions below their cap have something to sell, an unused right to emit, measured in tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Countries and companies that don’t meet their target can buy these one-tonne units to make up the shortfall. This is called emissions trading, or cap and trade. The net affect on the atmosphere is the same, provided measurements are accurate – ie each unit represents a true one-tonne reduction below the cap – and each unit is used only once. This requires clear rules and transparency.

There are a number of benefits to emissions trading. Flexibility is an important one. Companies can better plan their capital investments and climate action in the medium and long term, knowing that in some years they can buy units to help meet their reduction targets. In other years they might have units to sell. This is another benefit of emissions trading – it creates a monetary incentive to reduce emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol created three such “market mechanisms”. The first, emissions trading, as described above, has led to a growing number of emissions markets in countries around the world. Perhaps the best known is the European Union Emissions Trading System (EUETS). The other two market mechanisms are project-based: the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation (JI).

Projects under CDM and JI don’t earn units by reducing emissions below a set cap. They earn units by reducing emissions below “business-as-usual” – the emissions that would occur without the project. Just like emissions trading, for such mechanisms to work a tonne reduction must represent a real tonne. This means that the calculation of the “business-as-usual” emissions must be based on good information, for example of past emissions, and accurate measurement of the emissions once the project is implemented. The project earns the difference between the two – the business-as-usual emissions and the post-project emissions, again, measured in tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

The units have a name. Under the CDM, the units are called certified emission reductions (CERs). Under JI they’re called emission reduction units (ERUs). Companies under the EUETS could use CERs and JI units to cover a part of their obligations. Likewise, countries with an emission reduction obligation under the Kyoto Protocol could use the units to cover a part of that obligation. The incentive thus created led to registration of more than 8000 projects in 111 developing countries eager to earn saleable CERs – spurring everything from wind power projects, to bus rapid transit schemes, to projects that spread the use of more efficient cook stoves. Likewise, JI incentivized projects, not in developing countries but in countries with an emission reduction commitment under the Kyoto Protocol.

Market and non-market based approaches in the Paris Agreement

Parties negotiating the Paris Climate Change Agreement decided they liked the benefits of countries cooperating to reduce emissions, like they can do under a market-based system. Under the Paris Agreement, cooperation should promote greater ambition (in terms of mitigation of emissions and adaptation to the effects of climate change), it should foster sustainable development and it should encourage broad participation in climate action from the private and public sectors. Parties also recognized that there are other ways to cooperate on climate action, and approaches other than market-based approaches.

Parties expressed all of this in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, they recognizedthe possibility of cooperative implementation among Parties and agreed to create a new market mechanism, that should be built drawing on the lessons from what went before, such as the CDM and JI. They also agreed to create a framework for non-market approaches mechanism. Just as the details of the new market mechanism need to be hammered out, Parties need to agree on how their new framework of non-market approaches mechanism will function. Until they decide otherwise, the non-market approaches mechanism can be anything and everything, provided it’s not market- based. It’s a broad basket, but based on what Parties have expressed since Paris, the non-market approaches mechanism will focus on cooperation on climate policy, it could include fiscal measures, such as putting a price on carbon or applying taxes to discourage emissions. 

What Is Platform Engineering?

 Platform engineering is an emerging technology approach that can accelerate the delivery of applications and the pace at which they produce business value.

Platform engineering improves developer experience and productivity by providing self-service capabilities with automated infrastructure operations. Platform engineering is trending because of its promise to optimize the developer experience and accelerate product teams’ delivery of customer value.

“Platform engineering emerged in response to the increasing complexity of modern software architectures. Today, non-expert end users are often asked to operate an assembly of complicated arcane services,” says Paul Delory, VP Analyst at Gartner. “To help end users, and reduce friction for the valuable work they do, forward-thinking companies have begun to build operating platforms that sit between the end user and the backing services on which they rely.”

Gartner expects that by 2026, 80% of software engineering organizations will establish platform teams as internal providers of reusable services, components and tools for application delivery. Platform engineering will ultimately solve the central problem of cooperation between software developers and operators.

How platform engineering works?

Platform engineering is an emerging trend intended to modernize enterprise software delivery, particularly for digital transformation. The engineering platform is created and maintained by a dedicated product team, designed to support the needs of software developers and others by providing common, reusable tools and capabilities, and interfacing to complex infrastructure. 

The specific capabilities of an engineering platform depend entirely on the needs of its end users. The platform is a product, built by a dedicated team of experts and offered to customers, who may be developers, data scientists or end users. Platform teams need to understand the needs of their user groups, prioritize the work, and then build a platform that is useful to the target audience.

Initial platform-building efforts often begin with internal developer portals (IDPs), as these are most mature. IDPs provide a curated set of tools, capabilities and processes. They are selected by subject matter experts and packaged for easy consumption by development teams. The platform team, in close consultation with the developers they support, must determine which approach is best for their unique circumstances.

The goal is a frictionless, self-service developer experience that offers the right capabilities to enable developers and others to produce valuable software with as little overhead as possible. The platform should increase developer productivity, along with reducing the cognitive load. The platform should include everything development teams need and present it in whatever manner fits best with the team’s preferred workflow.

The development of a new generation of tools has made platform engineering one of the hottest topics of conversation within the DevOps community. These tools aim to make building and maintaining platforms easier.

What platform engineering is used for?

What the ideal development platform is for one company may be useless to another company. Even within the same company, different development teams may have entirely different needs. 

The overarching goal of the engineering platform is enhancing developer productivity. For the organization, such platforms encourage consistency and efficiency. For the developer, they provide a welcome relief from the management of delivery pipelines and low-level infrastructure.

In short:

Platform engineering implements reusable tools and self-service capabilities with automated infrastructure operations, improving the developer experience and productivity. 

This technology approach utilizes reusable configurable application components and services.

The benefit to users is in standardized tools, components and automated processes.

What Are Industry Cloud Platforms?

 In short:

Industry cloud platforms combine traditional cloud services with tailored, industry-specific functionality to address historically hard-to-tackle vertical challenges. 

Organizations turn to industry cloud platforms to accelerate time to value and benefit from cross-industry innovations.

Industry cloud platforms add value by using innovative supporting technologies and approaches, such as an integrated data fabric, a marketplace with packaged business capabilities and composability tooling, to provide organizations the agility needed to respond to accelerating change.

AI TRiSM

AI trust, risk and security management (AI TRiSM) ensures AI model governance, trustworthiness, fairness, reliability, robustness, efficacy and data protection. This includes solutions and techniques for model interpretability and explainability, AI data protection, model operations and adversarial attack resistance.

Applied observability defined

(a) Observability is the ability to understand what is happening inside a system based on the external data released by that system. Observability requires that actionable data from multiple sources is appropriately connected, optimized and enhanced for context. 

(b) Observable data refers to any variable that can be observed and directly measured. For an enterprise, it often comes from one or more existing IT systems. 

(c) Applied observability is the applied use of observable data in a highly orchestrated and integrated approach across business functions, applications, and infrastructure and operations teams. It enables shortening the time between stakeholder actions and organizational reactions, and so allows proactive planning of business decisions.

Six prerequisites for a strong digital immune system

When building digital immunity, start with a strong vision statement that helps to align the organization and smooth implementation. Then take account of the following six practices and technologies:

(a) Observability enables software and systems to be “seen.” Building observability into applications provides the necessary information to mitigate issues with reliability and resilience and — by observing user behavior — improve UX.

(b) AI-augmented testing enables organizations to make software testing activities increasingly independent from human intervention. It complements and extends conventional test automation and includes fully automated planning, creation, maintenance and analysis of tests. 

(c) Chaos engineering uses experimental testing to uncover vulnerabilities and weaknesses within a complex system. If used in preproduction environments, teams can safely master the practice in a nonintrusive and test-first manner — and then apply the lessons learned to normal operations and production hardening.

(d) Autoremediation focuses on building context-sensitive monitoring capabilities and automated remediation functions directly into an application. It monitors itself and corrects issues automatically when it detects them and returns to a normal working state without requiring the involvement of operations staff. It can also prevent issues by using observability in combination with chaos engineering to remediate a failing UX.

(e) Site reliability engineering (SRE) is a set of engineering principles and practices that focuses on improving CX and retention by leveraging service-level objectives to govern service management. It balances the need for velocity against stability and risk, and reduces the effort of development teams on remediation and tech debt, but allows for more focus on creating a compelling UX.

(f) Software supply chain security addresses the risk of software supply chain attacks. Software bills of materials improve the visibility, transparency, security and integrity of proprietary and open-source code in software supply chains. Strong version-control policies, the use of artifact repositories for trusted content and managing vendor risk throughout the delivery life cycle protect the integrity of internal and external code.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Systems

 

Eligibility of international credits

• 08/11/2013 - Commission Regulation (EU) No 1123/2013 on determining international credit entitlementsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 07/06/2011 - Commission Regulation (EU) No 550/2011 determining certain restrictions applicable to the use of international credits from projects involving industrial gasesSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• Positive and negative credit lists
  • General positive listSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • General negative listSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Explanatory note on the credit listsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• Harmonised rules regarding large hydroelectric dam projects:
  • 27/10/2004 - Directive 2004/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/87/EC in respect of the Kyoto Protocol's project mechanismsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Guidelines on the application of Article 11(b) 6 of Directive 2004/101/ECSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Project compliance questionnaireSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••

Linking with other greenhouse gas emissions trading systems

• 05/11/2020 - Decision No 1/2020 of the Joint Committee established by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emission trading systems of 5 November 2020 on the adoption of Common Operational Procedures (COP)Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 05/11/2020 - Decision No 2/2020 of the Joint Committee established by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emission trading systems of 5 November 2020 on on amending Annexes I and II to the Agreementand the adoption of Linking Technical Standards (LTS)Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 12/10/2020 - Council Decision (EU) 2020/1492 of 12 October 2020 on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the Joint Committee established by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systems as regards the adoption of Common Operational ProceduresSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 12/10/2020 - Council Decision (EU) 2020/1493 of 12 October 2020 on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the Joint Committee, established by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systems, as regards amending Annexes I and II to the Agreement and the adoption of Linking Technical StandardsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 01/01/2020 - Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systems (consolidated version on 1 January 2020)Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 01/01/2020 - Notice concerning the entry into force of the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systemsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 10/12/2019 - Council Decision (EU) 2019/2106 - on the position to be taken, on behalf of the European Union, within the Joint Committee established by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systems, as regards the amendment of Annexes I and II to the AgreementSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 05/12/2019 - Decision No 2/2019 of the Joint Committee established by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emission trading systemsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 25/01/2019 - Decision No 1/2019 of the Joint Committee established by the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systemsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 07/12/2017 - Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the linking of their greenhouse gas emissions trading systemsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 16/08/2017 - Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of an Agreement, between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the Linking of their Greenhouse gas Emissions Trading SystemsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • AnnexSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 16/08/2017 - Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of an Agreement, between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the Linking of their Greenhouse gas Emissions Trading SystemsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • AnnexSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 27/08/2012 - Letter - Minister Combet to Commissioner Hedegaard
• 27/08/2012 - Reply - Commissioner Hedegaard to Minister Combet
• 23/04/2009 - Directive 2009/29/EC (including Article 25) of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/87/EC so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the CommunitySearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 28/01/2009 - COM(2009) 39 - Commission Communication of 28 January 2009, Towards a comprehensive climate change agreement in CopenhagenSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• International Carbon Action Partnership

Encouraging new market mechanisms

• 31/08/2012 - Study: Design options for sectoral carbon market mechanismsSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• EU submissions on the new market mechanism
  • 11/04/2012 - Views on the new market based mechanism
  • 13/08/2012 - Addendum
• 26/05/2010 - COM(2010) 265 - Communication: Analysis of options to move beyond 20% greenhouse gas emission reductions and assessing the risk of carbon leakageSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
• 09/03/2010 - COM(2010) 86 - Communication: International climate policy post-CopenhagenSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••

Studies

• Study on the Integrity of the Clean Development Mechanism (December 2011)Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Briefing paper "Sustainable Development and Social Equity"Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Briefing paper "Technology Transfer through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)"Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Briefing paper "Political Lock-in in the context of the CDM"Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Briefing paper "Governance of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)"Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Briefing paper "Baseline Setting and Additionality Testing within the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)"Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Briefing paper "JI Track 1 preliminary assessment"Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••
  • Scoping paper "The potential for CDM induced leakage in energy intensive sectors"