A Common Framework to Align MRV Elements toward Comprehensive NDC Management Concept idea by the NDC Support Cluster

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Introduction to the Approach Achievement of NDC commitments under the UNFCCC’s Paris Agreement requires engagement from national and subnational actors, demanding effective governance and transparency frameworks for integrated NDC implementation. Multiple systems of information for Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) exist at all levels, with little coordination, harmonization, or interoperability.

Effective tracking of NDC implementation requires a robust, harmonized MRV system by which countries track and report on the implementation and impacts of their mitigation and adaptation actions, and the finances used to support these actions. Countries that have invested in multiple systems to track greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, mitigation actions, financial support, and other indicators are struggling to align these elements into a single, integrated MRV system. Harmonizing data sets and systems could require an alignment of timeframes, data elements (e.g., emission factors), institutional arrangements, and technology systems so that data can be aggregated and used to support reporting, such as for the National Communications and Biennial Reports.

Countries are beginning to explore or invest in technology solutions that improve transparency by centralising, systematising, and archiving climate information. These platforms have the potential not only collect and process data, but also to enable more meaningful analysis of the progress made towards NDC goals. A well-designed climate information platform can serve as a clearinghouse for exchanging information between national and subnational governments. Increasing the vertical integration and transfer of information can empower all levels of governance can support improved NDC planning and more informed decision-making. Systematized data collection, processing, and reporting can also make the process more sustainable as it reduces demands on human and financial resource investment.

Although capacities and contexts may differ, there are similarities in the data, institutional arrangements, and analysis that countries will need moving forward under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement. The proposed Framework for Climate Information Platforms is a compendium that will provide guidance on best practices for designing sustainable climate data management infrastructure (both technology and human resources) to support regular data collection and reporting, drawing on experiences from countries that have adopted platforms and technical expert input. The proposed Framework is not intended to be prescriptive; it will instead provide design recommendations and approaches that are flexible enough to be adapted to each country’s decision-making process with regards to climate data platforms for NDC implementation and tracking progress.

The Framework aims to guide the development of climate information platforms that will:

• Support national level tracking implementation and impacts of NDCs by improving their data management and sharing across different sectors and levels of government,

• Inform national and subnational target setting guided by the global level of ambition,

• Facilitate coordination and incentivise participation from different governmental actors (as both data users and data providers) through two-way information sharing,

• Be underpinned by robust institutional arrangements and agreements,

• And thus, meet the new challenges posed by the ETF for action and support under the Paris Agreement.

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In the form of a compendium that will include:

• Common necessary elements of a comprehensive national MRV system for NDC implementation process,

• Examples of technology and institutional solutions that integrate data management systems of different MRV elements (i.e., mitigation, adaptation, finance and others),

• Guidance and best practices on how to assess gaps in a country’s system, how to prioritize improvements, and initial steps on how to implement these,

• Key considerations for integrating and analysing different types of information, and

• Synergies with the NDC Partnership – contributing to their Toolbox Navigator and encouraging its use for countries as they develop their climate information platforms.

Specific Challenges and Barriers Tackled A key element of the Paris Agreement was to raise ambition through global stocktaking. By this process, countries would revisit their NDCs every five years to raise ambition, on the basis of each countries’ unique strengths and weaknesses. Raising ambition requires involvement from a range of actors and sectors, including subnational and non-state actors. A challenge countries face is conducting a thorough assessment of the emission reduction potential across these different sectors and levels, due to lack of communication and reporting channels, and lack of any independent mechanisms to verify information.

All countries will need to engage subnational actors in order to understand what actions are feasible to undertake in order to raise ambition; at the same time, subnational actors may lack appropriate channels to report on current and future actions, and adequate statistics at their geographical level. There are other challenges to effectively integrating data into a national MRV system, including (but not limited to) a lack of common metrics across subnational actors, a lack of geographically-appropriate benchmarks for setting and tracking progress, and proprietary or political barriers to data sharing.

For most countries, existing climate data is currently managed by different entities across disparate, unsynchronized systems. As a result, national climate change teams may lack a holistic understanding of the environmental data available or lack the ability to efficiently synthesise the data. Few countries have undertaken the task of organizing these platforms or arrangements into a uniform system with common key elements that supports both national and subnational actor needs.

The proposed Framework will attempt to provide countries with a comprehensive view of the key elements of data and institutional systems that will provide visibility to national policymakers into actions at all levels. This Framework would serve as a collection of global best practices that countries can follow to build strong institutional arrangements and comprehensive national MRV systems, which will mitigate data and information barriers, and ultimately invite comparison for raising ambition through the global stocktaking process.

Target Group / Beneficiaries The primary intended audiences for this Framework are national policymakers who are tasked with managing or monitoring a country’s GHG emissions and NDC implementation. The Framework will

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help such policymakers understand whether additional elements could be added to their MRV system to align it with international best practices.

Other audiences for this Framework include:

• Line ministry leaders who are looking to understand how their mitigation action plans or sectoral data fit within the country’s MRV system.

• Project developers who want to ensure that their mitigation actions are reflected in the country’s mitigation planning, voluntary or mandatory GHG reduction programs, or GHG inventories.

• Where relevant, other stakeholders who are managing related NDC indicators (finance, adaptation, SDGs) and want to incorporate their data or stakeholders into the country’s GHG MRV system.

Potential Collaboration Partners In order to implement this idea and have a Framework applicable to various national contexts, the work should be done in collaboration with different partners with experience in the field, either by developing their own platforms or by expressing interest in their design. Likewise, organizations working on transparency issues, and building MRV capacities, which potentially could be interested in funding this type of Framework.

Collaborators could be preliminarily separated into two groups: i) National or subnational governments; ii) International organizations, research centers, or development partners. These could be determined through further research.

Currently there are some experiences in countries, and with international and private organizations, that could help to understand the complexity and lessons learned related to the development of transparency platforms and synergies could be explored with some of them to avoid duplication:

Some interesting initiatives at the national level to consider include:

• Costa Rica’s Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) project

• Colombia’s SINGEI, RENARE, and SIAC platforms

• South African Climate Change MRV System/ ClimateWatch • Chile’s CBIT project

Interesting international/multilateral initiatives include:

• Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement (PATPA)

• The Initiative for Active Climate Transparency (ICAT)

• The UN Global Support Program (GSP)

• CBIT-GEF

• WRI’s ClimateWatch

Technology partners are another key stakeholder group to consult with in the development of the Framework. Many countries lack the resources or capacity to evaluate sustainable technology solutions to underpin a data management platform. Best practices and guidance from technology experts could support countries in understanding how to implement a climate information platform.

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Challenges and Opportunities The concept proposed by the Framework is a necessary but ambitious proposal to accelerate progress towards enhanced climate transparency. The scope and scale of the Framework presents some potential implementation challenges:

• Institutional arrangements for data sharing: Many countries already struggle with establishing and maintaining sustainable data collection, management, and sharing arrangements, which leads to gaps in communication and a patchwork approach to MRV. These existing issues will persist or be exacerbated by the demands of the ETF.

• Number of actors involved: In order to meet the objectives of transparent NDC reporting, a larger network of agencies, organizations, and subnational actors will need to be engaged. It may be challenging to capture appropriate and relevant best practices that can be adopted to different circumstances.

• Existing, unique IT infrastructure: Most countries have independently developed different processes and systems to collecting and managing climate-related data. Although the Framework presents technology-agnostic guidance, additional considerations will need to be made on how to align proposed best practices with each country’s circumstances in a way that increases the likelihood of adoption.

The challenges are not insignificant but are outweighed by the opportunities that the Framework presents to the global community:

• Supporting greater data transparency and availability: The primary opportunity presented by the Framework is to support more robust climate data collection and archiving that can better inform climate decision-making. For example, having greater transparency of data about proposed municipal or state mitigation actions can provide insight into the pipeline of investment-ready projects, which can inform government planning and investment. Having centralized data - including a collaborative cloud system - that can be managed over time also allows countries to more easily report to the UNFCCC process to demonstrate progress.

• Share best practices, approaches, and agreements on establishing channels of communication: Establishing institutional arrangements around MRV is a challenge but the problem is not insurmountable; there are countries that have established systems that allow for data to flow between ministries and organizations. The lessons learned and templates for success can be shared as part of the Framework to ensure that the human resources foundational to any data system are in place.

• Define common elements for all countries to allow for comparability: Most countries have not developed comprehensive climate information platforms to date; the Framework could set an early blueprint that results in more countries providing relevant and comparable information.

• Economies of scale: The Framework can initiate a conversation about platform needs across regions and globally, which could support “economies-of-scale” design. Countries could elect to pool resources to develop the commonly needed parts of a climate information platform in an open-source fashion and adopt them for their own needs.

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Next Steps This concept note is the first step in outlining a process to address a common need countries have to unify various MRV activities into a full MRV system. The next steps required to realize this vision include:

• Engage with additional country stakeholders to verify that this is a common need,

• Organise a process to identify the best practices of a MRV system framework, incorporating input from the global MRV community, national governments, donor organizations, and technologists,

• Distill design recommendations and best practices from research and interviews into a Framework compendium,

• Conduct peer reviews and pilot the Framework with select country teams,

• Conduct research on the latest software, cloud based platforms, and data security systems,

• Publish the Framework, together with case studies of successful examples of key Framework elements (e.g., GHG registries, national inventory tools and systems, policies, institutional arrangements), and

• Establish a repository to allow Framework users to share tools and information for others to build on.

Authors: Jenny Mager (Climate Change Office Chile), Derina Man (ICF), Milimer Morgado (The Climate Group), Marian Van Pelt (ICF), with contributions from Christina Bowman (University of Maryland), Ximena Ruz (Sustainability and Climate Change Agency Chile), Raquel Souya (GIZ Brazil), Julia Rohe (adelphi).

The following sub-national governments contributed to the concept note: Sao Paulo State (Brazil), Baja California (Mexico), Western Cape (South Africa). Javier Mendoza (UNDP-Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies) of Colombia also contributed to the concept note.

This concept idea has been developed in the framework of the Thematic Working Group on Transparency of the NDC Support Cluster.

10 / 2018

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Annex 1: Essential Elements of a Robust MRV System