Synopsis

The Paris Agreement’s enhanced transparency framework places new and more stringent requirements on developing countries. For many countries, to implement these new requirements capacity-building support is vital. This new paper from the Project for Advancing Climate Transparency examines specifically how the new requirements have been enhanced, highlights the experiences of countries’ related to transparency, and maps the initiatives and processes designed to support capacity building.

Key Findings

  • Capacity building is essential to drive climate transparency. The 2015 Paris Agreement outlines an “enhanced transparency framework” including greater requirements for developing countries. Some developing countries have struggled to fulfill pre–Paris Agreement transparency requirements and will need capacity-building support to implement the Paris Agreement’s more stringent requirements.
  • New efforts to build capacity for the transparency framework need not “start from scratch” but should build on and learn from the history of transparency and capacity building under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
  • Countries agreed on the guidelines for the enhanced transparency framework in December 2018. This paper shows how these guidelines strengthen the framework.
  • Drawing on 13 case studies that illustrate countries’ experiences in developing capacity for transparency, this paper highlights six key lessons to consider when building such capacity.
  • This paper also maps international initiatives aimed at supporting climate transparency, discusses how bodies under the UNFCCC can support capacity building, and highlights upcoming UNFCCC transparency-related capacity-building decisions.
  • The lessons presented throughout the paper aim to inform capacity-building efforts in order to be more effective, integrated, and sustainable than before the Paris Agreement, and enable countries to implement the Agreement at the pace and scale required.