Strengthening transparency of non-state actors: How national experiences and new digital technologies can strengthen the Transparency efforts of non-state actors

Abstract

The national plans of countries in a form of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the Paris Agreement form the foundation for reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. The credibility of the Agreement depends on the countries’ ability to implement these pledges and document their progress in a credible and transparent manner. The Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) is the mechanism that facilitates this global process of documenting climate action and tracking progress of individual countries. The ETF provides an essential input to the mechanism to increase collective ambition under the Agreement that is known as the Global Stocktake. It is increasingly recognized that Non-State Actors (NSAs) can play a crucial role in enhancing and directing national action. But there is currently no meaningful links between the ETF and the NSA engagements. This report is aiming to contribute to the discussions of how best to strengthen such links and how this may help generate more credibility of NSA pledges. The expectation is that this will be facilitating more action and ambition both by governments and among NSAs, but this assumption can only be verified in the future and is not discussed in detail in the report.