Article 6 & Long-Term Financing: Assessment Tool for Prioritization of Article 6 activities

Activity type identification process for Mitigation Activity Selection.

Developing a selection criteria and supporting tool that aims to help countries prioritize Article 6 activities that contribute to long-term climate goals and the mobilization of SDG finance. 

Developed on behalf of GIZ Article 6 Capacity Building Project. Component of global project NDC Assist II

Background

Objective

The Mitigation Activity Selection Criteria aims to complement the existing GIZ country-level catalog of criteria to guide national authorities in the decision-making process on mitigation activities to promote under cooperative approaches. Specifically, this toolkit focuses on aspects that could be incorporated into countries’ Article 6 activity selection process to ensure the contribution of the Article 6 activities to the achievement of long-term climate goals and mobilization of SDG finance. In other words, this selection criteria and supporting tool aims to help countries prioritize Article 6 activities that contribute to long-term climate goals and the mobilization of SDG finance. This should assist countries in negotiating cooperative approaches with other Parties to prioritize collaboration for activity types aligned with the long-term priorities of the country. It can also inform the activity approval process for Article 6.4 projects. Countries can, for example, establish different administrative fees based on the level of alignment

Structure

The process for the identification of Article 6 activities that contribute to long-term climate goals and the mobilization of SDG finance is proposed in two steps:

  1. Country-level assessment. A country can analyze what activity types are aligned with long-term climate objectives.
  2. Activity-level assessment. There are some design attributes of a mitigation activity that influence how much it contributes to the long-term climate goals of a country and its sustainable development.”        

1. Country-level assessment: SDGs, GHG inventory, and NDC profile

This first step aims at identifying those activity types that are both aligned with the country’s long-term climate commitments and the country’s sustainable development priorities.

  • The identification of these activity types requires first analyzing the country’s climate commitments as reflected in its NDC and LT-LEDS. A more granular view of the NDC implementation plan and other sectoral plans will inform those types of activities requiring support for NDC implementation and those activities that would increase the level of climate action ambition. Countries have different documents outlining sustainable development plans and priorities. Some are socio-economic development plans, some are long-term development plans, some refer to specific SDG targets and indicators which are tracked overtime. Regardless of the type of document available, a key part of the approach proposed is to identify the SDG target priorities, and to identify information on the progress of achieving those targets. If this is done, priority areas can be identified for which additional carbon finance is needed and should be prioritized.

  • Once this is done, priority areas can be identified for which additional carbon finance is needed and should be prioritized. This is an approach significantly different from “confirming that an activity is aligned with national sustainable development objectives”. It is about identifying the key sectors and mitigation activities that will enhance SDG target achievement. Considering the sustainable development priorities of the county the analysis will identify those activity types that contribute to climate goals and are aligned with development priorities.

2. Activity-level assessment

This step analyzes those design attributes to ensure the contribution of the activity to the long-term climate goals of the country and sustainable development. It is organized in three modules:

  • Module 1. Transformational Change.
  • Module 2. Long-Term Financial Sustainability.
  • Module 3. Contribution to Sustainable Development.

This section of the tool has used information from the catalog of criteria provided by GIZ, ICAT transformational change methodology, the project assessment tool developed by UNDP, the program level Mitigation Action Assessment Protocol (MAAP tool) by the World Bank, and the UNEP SD assessment template.”

Module 1. Transformational change

The Transformational Change Learning Partnership (TCLP) by CIF defines transformational change for climate action as “a fundamental change in systems relevant to climate action, with large-scale positive impacts that shift and accelerate the trajectory of progress towards climate-neutral, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable development pathways”. There are several resources to assess the transformational change of a mitigation action; in general, it relates to the scale, sustained nature of outcome, and shifts in system structure.        

Module 2. Long-term Financial Sustainability

The long-term financial sustainability of the mitigation action is critical to ensure the contribution to climate goals beyond one NDC cycle and also the contribution to SDG, what normally require long term support. It is proposed to use the program-level MAAP tool to assess long-term financial sustainability. This tool is designed for assessing comprehensive programs that involve policy and project implementation. The UNDP MADD assessment tool includes a streamlined approach for single-instance projects or programmatic projects.

Module 3. Contribution to Sustainable Development

This set of indicators assesses the activity contribution to sustainable development beyond emissions reduction. It is based on the MAAP tool sustainable development module. It evaluates the planning, implementation and monitoring aspects of the activity social, environmental and financial benefits, and assesses how different stakeholders are considered in the design or implementation of the mitigation action. 

Note:

Users of this toolkit are strongly encouraged to have a fundamental understanding of Article 6 and NDC concepts. Such knowledge will facilitate the application of the toolkit and ensure the generation of more reliable results.

Documentation (coming soon)

Mitigation Activity Selection Criteria

On behalf of GIZ Article 6 Capacity Building Project. Component of global project NDC Assist II

Mitigation Activity Selection Toolkit

On behalf of GIZ Article 6 Capacity Building Project. Component of global project NDC Assist II