Biennial transparency reports under the Paris Agreement

What Article 13 requires

Article 13 sets up an enhanced transparency framework for action and support, with built-in flexibility for different capacities ¹. Under paragraph 7, each party shall regularly provide a national inventory report of emissions by sources and removals by sinks, and the information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving its NDC under Article 4 ¹.

Paragraph 11 says this information shall undergo a technical expert review ¹. Each party shall participate in a facilitative, multilateral consideration of progress on its efforts and on implementing and achieving its NDC ¹.

What a BTR filing contains

The UNFCCC listing of first BTRs shows several documents per party ². These include the BTR itself, a National Inventory Document, Common Reporting Tables, and common tabular format tables on the NDC and on support ². Some parties filed these on different dates ².

• BTR: the report on progress and policies ²
• NID: the National Inventory Document ²
• CRT: the Common Reporting Tables ²
• CTF tables NDC and CTF tables support: tabular data on the NDC and on support ²

First BTR dates for G20 members, A to M

The UNFCCC page lists the following BTR dates. The copy read for this page showed parties in alphabetical order up to Mexico, so later G20 members are not included ².

How BTRs connect to other reviews

Article 14 requires a global stocktake, the first in 2023 and every five years after ¹. Article 15 sets up a mechanism to promote implementation and compliance, run by a committee that is expert-based and facilitative and works in a transparent, non-adversarial and non-punitive way ¹.

Domestic laws refer to the BTR too. The preamble of Canada's Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act lists the biennial transparency report among Canada's international reporting obligations ³. The EU Climate Law times the Commission's five-yearly assessment to allow preparation for the global stocktake ⁴.

Reading a BTR date

A BTR date shows when a document was filed, not whether a target was met. Several parties filed parts of the package on different dates. Canada's National Inventory Document is dated 2 May 2024 and its BTR 30 December 2024 ². The European Union's BTR is dated 22 November 2024 and its Common Reporting Tables 28 April 2025 ². Mexico's BTR is dated 27 December 2024 and its inventory document 18 June 2025 ².

Kenya is shown with a BTR dated 24 December 2024, and the listing gives two different dates for its Common Reporting Tables ². Where dates differ in the listing, both are part of the record. The Paris Agreement status page shows 194 parties ⁵.