By Nesia Mhaka
The Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry has launched a US$1,2 million Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency aimed at strengthening the institutional and technical capacities to meet the enhanced transparency requirements in the Paris Agreement.
The project is being funded by the Global Environmental Facility with United Nations Environment being the delivery partner while the implementing entity is the Government of Zimbabwe through the Climate Change Management Department.
The newly implemented project aims to strengthen institutions as well as to co-ordinate, manage and implement climate transparency activities in line with national priorities and to ensure that best practices are disseminated for institutional strengthening and establish a national network of practitioners for the continuity of climate transparency activities.
In 1992, countries endorsed an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as a framework for international cooperation to combat climate change.
In 2015, the Paris Agreement was endorsed, building on the work undertaken under the UNFCCC, chatting a new course of global action to combat climate change and Zimbabwe is a Party to both the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreements.
The country (Zimbabwe), being a party to the Paris Agreement, need to provide the necessary information to track progress towards implementing and achieving Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and it also needs to demonstrate good practices, and highlight needs and gaps to provide inputs to the five-yearly Global Stock-take.
The Paris Agreement requested the Global Environmental Facility to support the establishment and operation of the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) to assist developing countries in meeting the enhanced transparency requirements of the agreement in both the pre and post-2020 period.
The initiative is in support of the Article 13 of the Paris Agreement which articulates an ‘enhanced transparency framework for action and support’.
There are a set of Modalities, Procedures and Guidelines (MPGs) for the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) and are guided by the principle of building on and enhancing transparency arrangements under the Convention.
Speaking at the inception workshop of Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency in Harare last week, Climate Change Management Department Director, Mr Washington Zhakata said tackling climate change challenges requires new ways of thinking, new approaches to development and new partnerships across sectors, nations and societies.
The workshop was meant to discuss the project with relevant stakeholders in preparation for the development of a Global Environmental Facility (GEF) CEO Endorsement Request Package or Full Project Proposal.
“Climate change is a serious problem that we are facing today and it needs joint various techniques to tackle it. This initiative, the CBIT will enable countries to establish or strengthen their in-house capacity to track progress on national commitments made under the Paris Agreement, and also to produce more comprehensive and accurate reports capturing their implementation in the medium to long-term.
“The CBIT also supports countries to build capacity to enhance their level of ambition under the Paris Agreement, including by enhancing capacities for the generation of more accurate and updated data on emissions in all sectors, as well as in the impacts of adaptation measures in increasing resilience of communities and ecosystems,” he said.
Mr Zhakata said as a country there is need to build people’s capacity by conducting training of stakeholders in the collection and management of GHG and related data.
“There is need to strengthen our capacity by conducting training of personnel in the collection and management of GHGs and related data, including data interpretation, storage and updating of databases. The use of data and tools for independent monitoring, reporting and verification requires skilled professionals that are capable of interpreting data for national purposes.
“Currently there are no ready-to-use datasets for such national level comparisons in Zimbabwe, and yet the country needs to account for anthropogenic emissions and removals from key sectors such as energy, waste, IPPU and AFOLU sectors, in a manner that promotes environmental integrity, transparency, accuracy, completeness, comparability and consistency.
“In order to address some of the challenges the country is facing in reporting to the UNFCCC, the Government through the Climate Change Management Department, Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, with assistance from the UN Environment (UNEP), applied for financial resources from the Global Environmental Facility Trust Fund – Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT),” he added.
Speaking at the same event, CBIT technical focal person Mr Tatenda Mutasa said the CBIT project will support Zimbabwe to transition and comply with the MPGs for the ETF.
“The project will support the Government on integrating knowledge from transparency initiatives into national policy and decision-making; and also offer assistance with deployment and enhancement of information and knowledge management structure to meet Article 13 needs.
“The initiative also aims to develop tools and protocols for the GHG inventory elaboration, assess needs and gaps concerning tools, protocols and equipment as well as procurement and running of appropriate equipment for data collection and processing,” he said.
