The increased understanding of our environment and the recognition that environmental problems do not stop at national boundaries have resulted in global concern about the future of our planet and an increasing number of international agreements to address those concerns. Since 1972, when over 130 nations took part in the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the number of multilateral international environmental agreements has grown from fewer than 50 to more than 170. Developing an international environmental agreement involves achieving a commitment among many nations with various levels of industrial development, technical capabilities, resources, and concern about an environmental problem. It is expected that the parties to the agreement then implement it within their countries by establishing the necessary laws, regulations, and administrative systems. Adopting commitments and implementing laws, however, do not necessarily lead to the changes in behavior that help to solve the environmental problem the agreement is attempting to address. Resources must also be provided to enforce the laws enacted and to evaluate the progress made, making adjustments, over time, as necessary. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Framework Convention) was signed by 154 nations, including the United States, in 1992. The Framework Convention’s objective was to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (manmade) interference with the climate system. Under the Framework Convention, both developed and developing countries agreed, for example, to develop and submit reports on their greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the general provisions agreed to by all countries, developed countries agreed to report on their policies and measures with the aim of returning their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. However, this goal was not binding on the developed countries. The Framework Convention entered into force in 1994, and the United States was one of the first nations to ratify it. However, by 1995, the parties to the convention realized that insufficient progress was being made toward its goals and thus decided to begin negotiations on a legally binding protocol. In December 1997, the parties reconvened in Kyoto, Japan, to finalize binding measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The resultant Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention established binding emissions reductions for the period 2008 through 2012 for developed countries and laid the groundwork for additional measures aimed at decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. A number of important issues were not addressed at Kyoto: the role of developing nations, the specifics of an emissions-trading program (agreed to in principle), and procedures for determining, and consequences for, noncompliance. Negotiations are continuing on these issues, including provisions that might specify data-reporting requirements, monitoring mechanisms, and enforcement procedures. The Kyoto Protocol, initially adopted by 38 nations, was open for signature by all nations until mid-March 1999. As of that deadline, 84 nations, including the United States, had signed, thereby affirming their commitment to work to meet the protocol’s ambitious goals. U.S. ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which requires the advice and consent of the Senate, is uncertain at this time. The official representatives of all the countries that have ratified the Framework Convention constitute its Conference of the Parties. This body held its first session in 1995 and will continue to meet annually unless decided otherwise. The Conference of the Parties is served by a secretariat, which administers the agreement. Among other things, the secretariat arranges for conference meetings, drafts official documents, compiles and transmits reports submitted to it, assists the parties in compiling and communicating information, coordinates with the secretariats of other relevant international bodies, and reports on its activities to the Conference of the Parties. The secretariat is operationally independent of the United Nations, but it is linked to the United Nations and its head is appointed by the U.N. Secretary-General in consultation with the parties to the Framework Convention. The objective of this study was to provide background information on provisions that help ensure compliance with international environmental agreements, namely data reporting, monitoring, and enforcement. For the purposes of this study, we will use the following definitions for those terms with respect to international environmental agreements: Reporting is providing measurable data on activities undertaken in response to international obligations. Monitoring is the review and analysis of the data and other information that allows assessment of the impact or extent of progress being made in meeting the agreement’s stated goal or objective. Enforcement is a strategy adopted by the parties to an agreement that establishes consequences for a party’s noncompliance with its obligations under the agreement. In examining how to improve nations’ compliance with their international environmental obligations, we are taking a “results-oriented” approach. That is, we will explore those aspects of reporting, monitoring, and enforcement that are designed to ensure that signatory nations’ actions result in achieving the Framework Convention’s objectives. We surveyed our past reports and other relevant literature on the subject and summarized the results of our analysis. (See the bibliography for a list of the works we included in this effort.) The information presented in this study draws on information provided by a number of authors. We tended to cite those authors who provided specific examples to illustrate the points made. We did not attempt to verify the accuracy of the information presented in the literature. Our expert panelists, including an official from the Department of State, reviewed a draft of this study, and we incorporated their comments where appropriate. Susan R. Fletcher, Senior International Environmental Policy Analyst, Congressional Research Service, also contributed to this study. We performed our work from July 1998 through May 1999. Data on the activities that nations are undertaking to meet their international environmental obligations are the basis of determining whether each nation is in compliance with the agreement to which it is a party. Historically, such data have had problems, such as being incomplete or inaccurate. As a result, it has often been difficult to determine whether nations are meeting their obligations. More recently, efforts to improve reporting rates have resulted in more complete data on nations’ compliance activities. However, data quality remains questionable. Currently, the Kyoto Protocol’s requirements for data reporting consist of general requirements and supplemental guidelines. These guidelines provide the parties with considerable flexibility. Data on the activities that nations undertake to respond to their international environmental obligations are the basis of evaluating whether nations have fulfilled those obligations. The data form the first step in the evaluation process by providing measurable information on the results of nations’ activities. Once the activities have been measured, the data can be verified for accuracy, compared with the performance criteria, and otherwise examined to conclude whether a nation has achieved the agreed-to results. To be useful, the data must meet a number of criteria, including completeness, accuracy, understandability, uniformity, and timeliness. The data on nations’ activities typically result from a requirement in most international environmental agreements that each nation report on its own behavior. Our studies and those by others have shown that national data reports have many problems. For example, in 1996 we examined the progress of the United States and other signatory nations in meeting the goal of the Framework Convention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. The Framework Convention requires signatory nations to adopt policies and measures to limit greenhouse gases and to submit detailed plans showing how each will help emissions return to 1990 levels. We reported, however, that the nations’ self-reported emissions data were often incomplete, unreliable, and inconsistent. For example, as of February 1996, some data on 1990 emissions levels were available for only 29 of the 36 parties to the Framework Convention. The data were incomplete largely because the Framework Convention’s reporting requirements were not specific and were developed only after some nations had submitted their reports. Consequently, the nations’ progress in meeting the convention’s goals could not be fully assessed. According to experts, ambiguity in the language of international environmental agreements frequently contributes to these types of data problems. In its October 1998 report on monitoring and reporting under the Kyoto Protocol, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development reported further that, after two full rounds of national reporting under the Framework Convention, a number of important gaps in reporting were apparent: data were missing, parties submitted their reports late, and information about how the data were prepared was lacking. Problems with self-reported data have long been recognized, and in response, some international environmental agreements have begun including provisions to improve reporting rates. One way to improve data reporting is through financial assistance to developing nations that lack the administrative capacity to fulfill their reporting requirements. For example, the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) has a multilateral fund designed to boost developing nations’ activities to comply with the protocol’s provisions.The fund pays for projects in developing nations that gather baseline data and build the administrative capacity to report the data. According to experts, this financial assistance to developing nations has resulted in better self-reporting of certain data under the Montreal Protocol. These improvements notwithstanding, the poor quality of self-reported data continues to be a problem under international environmental agreements. Experts familiar with numerous studies of the issue have noted that the data continue to be difficult to compare and their accuracy is often low or unknown. The Kyoto Protocol incorporated the general reporting requirements and supplemental guidelines of the Framework Convention. Parties are required to submit to the secretariat a national inventory of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, a general description of steps taken or to be taken to implement the protocol, and any other information that the party considers relevant. In addition to these requirements, the parties adopted guidelines that recommend methodologies for the parties to use in gathering their inventory data, the level of detail to include in the reports, and presentation formats to follow. The guidelines were developed to help ensure that the national reports are consistent and comparable; however, they provide considerable flexibility and do not require parties to follow a specific procedure. In addition, the protocol currently does not specify any penalties for not meeting the general requirements or following the guidelines. According to the work plan adopted by the parties in November 1998, those are to be developed by the end of 2000. Monitoring is necessary to determine whether a nation individually, and all nations collectively, are complying with their international environmental obligations.