Expansion of the ICAT climate action data tool for the transport sector and development of a climate action data tool for the waste sector, including application of the tool in up to three countries

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’s day-to-day activities, coordinating and guiding the work of the implementing partners.

In early 2022, ICAT launched the Transport Climate Action Data (TraCAD) tool. TraCAD is a web-based tool that supports countries to systematically assess the impact of climate actions in the transport sector. TraCAD streamlines all aspects of the data collection process, and offers standard methodologies, calculations and reporting in one place, while also making it more straightforward to connect actions and policies with outcomes and costs, to effectively design and track nationally determined contributions. TraCAD is open-source and free to use. It has been implemented in Cambodia and Antigua and Barbuda, with further country implementation planned. The tool is customisable and can be tailored to different country contexts and specificities. It currently offers the following four main functionalities, which countries can choose based on their needs:

• Data collection and management

• Greenhouse gas impact assessment

• Marginal abatement cost assessment

• Tracking climate actions

While TraCAD has been well-received so far, there is a demand from countries to expand the functionalities of TraCAD to ensure compatibility with the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Inventory Software and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ETF Reporting Tools. Additionally, there is also a demand to expand the coverage of TraCAD to other sectors, namely waste. The waste sector accounts for around 5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In developing countries, projections show that emissions from the waste sector are expected to grow the most, offering great potential for climate change mitigation. By effectively managing waste, countries can not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also stimulate economic growth by generating jobs and alternative livelihood solutions. ICAT is thus seeking a grantee(s) to develop additional functionalities for TraCAD, as well as to develop a similar climate action data tool for the waste sector.

The overarching objectives of the grant/funding are to:

• Make TraCAD compatible with IPCC Inventory and UNFCCC ETF Reporting Tools, as specified in the activities below;
• Develop a climate action data tool for the waste sector; and
• Support the application of the new version of the tool for the waste sector in up to three developing countries.