Improvement of the Introductory Guide for the ICAT Series of Policy Assessment Guides and Update to the Renewable Energy Guide

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency was established in 2015 at the COP that adopted the Paris Agreement to support implementation of the Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework. The Initiative works with over 50 developing countries ranging from large countries, like Nigeria, to small islands, such as Antigua & Barbuda.
ICAT provides countries with tailored support and practical tools and methodologies to build robust transparency frameworks needed for effective climate action in sync with national development priorities. The projects ICAT supports relate to: building or enhancing transparency frameworks for mitigation; building a monitoring and evaluation approach for adaptation; building or enhancing frameworks to track progress in implementing nationally determined contributions; assessing the impacts of climate policies; estimating or enhancing projections of greenhouse gases; integrating and/or aggregating climate actions at the subnational level and by non-State actors; building a tracking system for just transition processes; establishing or enhancing a climate data system; and putting in place a framework to track climate finance.
To support these areas, ICAT offers a suite of practical, open-source tools and methodologies to provide effective support to the transparency efforts of countries around the world.
ICAT is an unincorporated multi-stakeholder partnership steered by the Donor Steering Committee (DSC), conformed by its donors, Austria; Canada; Germany; Italy; the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF); and ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF), and includes the UNFCCC Secretariat as the dedicated UN body with a climate change policy mandate, and UNOPS as an ex-officio member. The Initiative is managed by UNOPS on behalf of the DSC. Within UNOPS, the ICAT Secretariat manages ICAT day-to-day activities, coordinating and guiding the work of the implementing partners.
 

The ICAT series of 10 policy assessment guides provide a stepwise and integrated approach for estimating the greenhouse gas, sustainable development and transformational impacts of countries’ climate policies and actions. The guides are free to use and include:
Five guides to assess GHG Impacts in different areas and sectors (agriculture, renewable energy, transport pricing, forestry, and buildings efficiency);
Three cross-cutting impact assessment guides (sustainable development, transformational change, and non-state and subnational actions), and;
Two process guides (stakeholder participation, and technical review).
Additionally, an overarching Introductory Guide is available, which provides an overview of the series of assessment guides and introduces users to the assessment process and how to use the guides. 
Used separately or in combination, the guides can support countries to improve: policy design and implementation; NDC revision and tracking of their progress; domestic or international reporting; and the mobilisation of finance by demonstrating the results of effective policies. Since their launch in 2019, the guides have been applied by numerous countries, some have been updated, and several have been complemented by a number of practical, freely available tools. In order to continue improving the guides to make them more aligned to the needs of developing countries and more easily accessible, ICAT now seeks to initiate work on:
a new, comprehensive Introductory Guide for the series of policy assessment guides. 
the update and improvement of one of the policy assessment guides focusing on GHG impact: the Renewable Energy Guide. 
The energy sector is a crucial area for mitigation action, accounting for 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions, from which over 40% come from the production of electricity and heat. Given the scale of emissions in the energy sector, shifting to energy from renewable sources serves as a substantial opportunity to reduce governments’ reliance on conventional fossil fuel sources. From this context, a significant need has emerged to assess and communicate the impacts of policies and actions related to renewable energy, to ensure they are effective in delivering GHG mitigation and helping countries meet their targets and commitments. Methodologies such as the ICAT Renewable Energy Guide have been developed to meet part of this need, by providing methodological guidance for assessing the GHG impacts of renewable energy policies that enable or incentivise mitigation practices or technologies that reduce emissions. The Renewable Energy Guide is the most applied of the ICAT policy assessment guides that focus on GHG impacts, however, the renewable energy policy landscape is evolving, which has meant that there are new areas of policy coverage that can be included, and there is still a lot of potential to be gained from broadening its coverage and enhancing its usability.