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COP23: Ready for the Enhanced Transparency Framework?

Around 80 participants attended the side event ‘Ready for the Enhanced Transparency Framework? – mastering BURs today, tracking NDCs tomorrow’ on 7 November 2017 at the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP) in Bonn, Germany. The event was hosted by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources Protection (MoENRP) of Georgia, International Climate Dialogue (ICD) and the UNEP DTU Partnership, supported by the GIZ project Information Matters, and endorsed by the Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement (PATPA).

The event illustrated how countries that are able to manage current reporting requirements under the UNFCCC (BURs and NCs) are better prepared for implementation of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) and tracking of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Participants from Chile, Georgia and Ghana shared their experiences in setting up national MRV systems, dealing with BUR requirements and making use of national benefits of climate change reporting. The event also demonstrated how different support programmes and initiatives, such as the Information Matters project, PATPA and the Initiative on Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), are assisting developing countries in applying guidance and enhancing capacities for mastering and streamlining MRV and transparency.

Igor Shishlov (Perspectives) opened the side event addressing MRV challenges for the Paris Agreement (PA). He said that MRV is crucial to the success of the Paris Agreement, as it helps build trust among parties, since the PA extends MRV coverage to all countries (blurring the ‘Annexes’). Furthermore, it assists in tracking progress towards NDCs, it extends MRV beyond mitigation to adaptation and finance, and it serves as a basis for national climate policies, such as carbon pricing.

Country speakers highlighted the additional benefits of reporting. Felipe Osses from the Chilean Ministry of the Environment stated that, ‘More and better information is the evidence for policy-making. It allows effective buy-in from stakeholders, both from the private sector and from government agencies that want to have strong arguments to discuss any decision.’ Daniel Benefor, the Ghanaian EPA representative, explained that, ‘Climate action is development action. Development M & E is climate change MRV, and that is Ghana’s view and that’s how we are approaching this. The existing national structures for M & E systems must be structured to respond to climate change MRV.’ Ekaterine Mikadze, representative of Georgia’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection, also acknowledged these benefits.  ‘There are benefits also on the national level to reporting in making more informed decisions by policy-makers and in creating more awareness within the public and also within the private sector related to MRV and the reporting system under the UNFCCC.’

You can find the agenda and all the presentations on the right column of this page. A recording of the event has been published on the YouTube channel of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (starting at 7:19).