News

Similar to the previous years, 2023 was a year of continual support and collaboration on mutual learning and political dialogue on transparency. However, the year 2023 was shaped by the concerning gap between current policies and the 1.5°C target, coupled with recent research increasingly stressing the importance of limiting global warming as much as possible. PATPA and its founding members, Germany, South Korea, and South Africa, understand the role transparency plays in achieving this goal. 

In that sense, PATPA had two main objectives in 2023: 

1. Highlighting the benefits of transparency that go beyond fulfilling reporting requirements and can support Parties in their transition towards net zero and climate resilient development pathways.
2. Continuing to support countries in adhering to the reporting schedule, i.e. in submitting their Biennal Update Report (BUR) and pave the road towards the submission of Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) by 2024. 

For this, PATPA offered an informal forum for networking and exchange, realized regional tailored workshops as well as many bilateral activities and produced a variety of practical knowledge products (soon available in different languages). 

Global level

In 2023, the 28th PATPA Partnership Meeting was held on the side-lines of the SB58 in Bonn, Germany, served as an informal forum for networking and exchange of transparency experts. The strong synergies between the Global Stocktake and the implementation of the Enhanced Transparency Framework, which results into a crucial input for future NDC updating cycles, were pointed out.

Regional level

This year saw again a multitude of regional workshops in all five regional groups of PATPA. The Lusophone Cluster held its 5th regional workshop in March 2023 in São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe, on capacity building in Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) and Transparency systems. The Anglophone African Countries completed their workshop on tracking and implementing NDCs under the Paris Agreement in May 2023. Cluster Francophone also held its workshop in May 2023 in Douala, Cameroon on the topic of “Capacity building on the support needed and received in the context of increased transparency”. In September, the Asia Regional Group had its workshop in Seoul, South Korea on tracking progress of the mitigation commitments of NDCs. In October of 2023, the Regional Group for Latin America and Caribbean conducted their workshop in Panama City, Panama on Tracking Progress of the Mitigation Commitments of NDCs. These workshops were jointly organised by PATPA and the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency – Global Support Programme (CBIT-GSP). The Asia workshop was additionally co-organised by Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center of Korea (GIR) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). UNDP Climate Promise co-organised the Lusophone and Francophone workshops.

In addition, the Cluster Lusophone and Cluster Francophone had a Cross-Regional Workshop in October 2023 in Istanbul, Türkiye, on NDC Tracking for mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation. The workshop was jointly organised by PATPA and UNDP Climate Promise with technical support by citepa.

National level

At the national level, PATPA’s Climate Helpdesk supported capacity development activities in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Peru, Chile, Gabon, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, and Georgia. Additional four countries are currently receiving support, including Rwanda, Honduras, Cap Verde, and Ecuador. The majority of Climate Helpdesk activities were in relation to the BTR Guidance and Roadmap Tool, aiming to facilitate long-term planning and structuring and elaborating a clear roadmap for the BTR process. 

Knowledge products

Knowledge products were an important part of PATPA’s work in 2023 with the aim to provide an overview of transparency and how it links to the other requirements under the Paris Agreement, to assess and address the benefits linked to transparency for Parties themselves, and ultimately to support countries in preparing their Biennial Transparency Reports.

In 2023, PATPA published three papers: 

• “Climate Action under the Paris Agreement” - a guidance note on what countries need to do under the Paris Agreement in terms of climate targets, tracking and implementation, and the role of Long-Term Low Greenhous Gas Emission Development Strategies; 
• “NDC Progress Indicators: a guidance for practitioners” – a step-by-step approach for identifying and compiling indicators for the first Biennial Transparency Report that align with the specific needs of the country, with the aim of increasing both the effectiveness and ambition of climate targets; and
• “Benefits of Climate Transparency” – a technical paper which explores the benefits that robust and self-sustained transparency systems can bring to governments, including access to carbon markets and climate finance.

Next to updating the “Good Practice Study on GHG-Inventories for the Waste Sector”, PATPA also developed an explainer video, showing the linkages between NDCs and Transparency in English, available with Spanish, Portuguese, and French subtitles.

Thank you to all PATPA partners

The year 2023 has been a productive year and we would like to thank our partners, in particular the UNFCCC secretariat, UNDP, FAO, CBIT-GSP, CPLP, NDC Partnership, Belgium, citepa (France), LuxDev, adelphi, Ökoinstitut, Edge Effects.

In 2024…

In the coming year 2024, PATPA is going to continue its efforts on a timely submission of the BTRs, fostering the exchange and knowledge transfer between the Global South and the Global North and using innovative formats to build the capacities to achieve a BTR submission by December 2024. For this, we are currently planning an exciting global event to exchange on BTR submissions. We are also looking forward to continuously working closely with our regional groups, planning again regional workshops in all clusters. On top, we are also planning another Partnership Meeting on the side-lines of the SBs in Bonn. 2024 will be an even bigger year for transparency – and we cannot wait for it!

Please get in touch with us, if you have any questions or feedback: contact@transparency-partnership.net.