Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT)

Providing policymakers around the world with tools and support to measure and assess the impacts of their climate actions

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) aims to strengthen capacities in developing countries to assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions and to support greater transparency, effectiveness, ambition and trust in climate policies worldwide.

The Initiative works with countries to build capacities on understanding and applying tools and approaches to measure, report and verify (MRV) greenhouse gas emissions reductions and adaptation action, as well as to strengthen existing institutional arrangements and processes for MRV of policies and actions.

The Paris Agreement marks a historic turning point in global climate action, committing all countries to limit global temperature rise, adapt to changes already occurring and regularly increase efforts over time. Countries also agreed on a process to prepare successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that raise ambition towards achieving the objectives of the Agreement. Mutual trust and confidence in the effective implementation of NDCs builds on enhanced transparency to support accelerated climate action. Article 13 of the Paris Agreement highlights the critical need for improved transparency to monitor the progress and assess the impacts of all climate actions to regularly increase efforts over time. ICAT seeks to address this need.

ICAT is designed to finance activities at the country, regional and global levels to drive immediate and long-term impacts that will result in sustained improvements to the administrative, legislative and institutional transparency infrastructure within countries.

ICAT aims to facilitate effective decision making and policy design, rooted in credible data. it provides tools to collect more robust and consistent data on emissions, mitigation and adaptation efforts, capacity building and support.

Better availability and quality of data will allow for assessment of the impact and effectiveness of domestic climate policies and set in motion an upward spiral of ambition and implementation. In addition to providing the guidance and tools for policy evaluation, the Initiative will create a space for countries to share their experiences and lessons learned.

Combining broadly-applicable methodologies and tools with in-country capacity building, ICAT is uniquely positioned to use on-the-ground experiences to refine tools and guidance. With better information and data, ICAT enables countries to select the most efficient, cost-effective policies to achieve their sustainable development priorities and fulfill their reporting requirements.
By working with countries’ existing reporting commitments, ICAT also promotes harmonization with other transparency efforts and in-country strategies to help maximize the impact of country efforts.

The initiative is a neutral multi-donor fund that is managed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), governed by a Donor Oversight Committee and supported by an Advisory Committee comprised of leading experts in MRV with balanced representation of geographic regions, subject areas, organizations and genders.

ICAT is implemented in cooperation with key international partners ISPRA, WRI, the GHG Management Institute, UN System Staff College, and Aether.