Provision of technical expertise to guide the development and delivery of e-learning trainings on climate finance transparency

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) 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 and has initiated three Regional Climate Action Transparency Hubs in Central Africa, Central Asia and Central America.

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), composed of donors, Austria; Canada; Germany; Italy and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and includes the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat as the dedicated UN body with a climate change policy mandate, and UNOPS as an ex-officio member. The Initiative is hosted 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.

Climate finance transparency is vital for countries to accurately assess and efficiently manage financial resources dedicated to achieving their individual climate objectives. Transparency plays a key role in tracking global efforts to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. It builds trust between stakeholders and showcases each individual country’s commitment to its climate action.  

Accurate data and accessible reports inform evidence-based decision-making at the local, national and international levels and encourage collective actions to address climate change. For developing countries, climate finance transparency is critical for planning and managing climate action, developing a financing strategy encompassing both the public and the private finance flows needed to implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long-term strategies, analyze the financing gaps, and mobilize additional funds for mitigation and adaptation purposes. 

In 2015, the Paris Agreement introduced the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) requiring all countries Party to the Agreement to build a national transparency framework. Starting in 2024, Parties to the Agreement are expected to submit their Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) to the UNFCCC.  

Developing an accurate picture of climate finance at the national level requires identifying the stakeholders, sources of finance, data points, policies and measures that are climate-related and included in a country’s NDC. The ability to measure, verify, and report climate-related finance and impacts of using climate finance at the national level is a critical element for developing countries to manage climate action at the national level and report climate finance needed and received through their BTR under the Paris Agreement. Another relevant element of the Paris Agreement is Article 2.1 (c) which foresees making “finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.”

Based on the needs identified by countries for more support in their climate finance transparency efforts, ICAT recently launched the ICAT Climate Finance Transparency Guide, which provides a methodological framework to support the estimation and tracking of climate finance for NDC implementation, and the integration of such data into national transparency frameworks and reporting under the ETF. The guide is currently available in English, with Spanish and French versions due to be available by January 2025. The guide is accompanied by an excel-based tool and various templates to support users. The guide’s step-by-step approach covers the following five phases: 

• Scoping, planning, and institutional arrangements;

• Defining and classifying climate finance;

• Ex-ante climate finance needs assessment;

• Climate finance tracking; and

• Evaluation, from transparency to enhanced climate action.

The guide offers levels of complexity to meet the needs of countries at different stages of readiness to track, measure, manage and report on climate finance.

As an increasing number of countries have expressed a desire to apply the ICAT Climate Finance Transparency Guide, ICAT is now seeking a grantee to provide subject-matter guidance and substantive input to the development and delivery of two training offerings based on the aforementioned guide. These training offerings will consist of: 1) an  e-learning module and 2) a standalone e-learning course, which should facilitate the understanding, uptake and accessibility of the guide.