Call for Proposals: Development of a tool for assessing climate action in the transport sector - CFP-11875-2021-04

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) aims to help countries better assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions, and fulfil their transparency commitments. It does this by increasing the overall transparency capacities of countries, including the capacity to assess the contribution of climate policies and actions on countries’ development objectives, and providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence-based policy-making. ICAT’s innovative approach is to integrate these two aspects.

ICAT focuses on countries that can highlight the benefits of increased transparency to demonstrate policy impact and evidence-based action. ICAT will generate evolving methodological guidance and extract best practices, to be publicly available to all actors, increasing the global knowledge base. ICAT’s work is country-driven, efforts build on existing Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems and knowledge in countries and complement previous or on-going activities by other initiatives, where applicable.

The transport sector is responsible for approximately 18% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and experts predict that transport activity could double by 2050. Substantial emission reductions and urgent action are therefore needed in the sector, in order to meet the aim of the Paris Agreement to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Transportation activity typically increases with economic activity, and at the same time drives development and economic growth, making climate action in the transport sector particularly challenging for developing countries. However, well designed transportation policies can at the same time carry great potential to significantly reduce GHG emissions, while also supporting national development priorities.

In this context, methodologies such as the ICAT transport pricing methodology have been developed to assess and communicate the impacts of transport policies to ensure that they are effective in mitigating GHG emissions, and help countries meet their targets and national commitments. One of the primary issues that countries face, however, is a lack of capacity and tools to systematically collect the relevant data to properly assess impacts of national climate change policies and actions. In many cases, there is an ad hoc nature in the way that data is collected and subsequently used in estimating GHG emission outcomes, and the selection of relevant methodologies.

ICAT is therefore seeking proposals for the development of a tool that will support and facilitate countries to systematically assess the impact of climate action in the transport sector.

The tool will achieve this by streamlining all aspects of the data collection process and offer standard methodologies, calculations and reporting, in one place. It will also guide users through the process, making it easier and more straightforward to connect actions and policies with outcomes and costs, and track and design NDCs. This will provide a more consistent approach to data collection and assessment, which will improve the credibility of impact assessments of policies and actions and boost the country’s capacity to meet their own national climate and sustainable development targets, as well as provide the required information to deliver high quality reporting under the Paris Agreement.

Deadline for submission of proposals: 26th April 2021 (by 17:00, Copenhagen, Denmark Time).