The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) was established in 2015 at the COP that adopted the Paris Agreement to support the implementation of the Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework. ICAT provides countries with tailored support and practical tools and methodologies to build robust transparency frameworks needed for effective climate action in sync with national development priorities.
The projects ICAT supports relate to: building or enhancing transparency frameworks for mitigation; building a monitoring and evaluation approach for adaptation; building or enhancing frameworks to track progress in implementing nationally determined contributions; assessing the impacts of climate policies; estimating or enhancing projections of greenhouse gases; integrating and/or aggregating climate actions at the subnational level and for non-State actors; building a tracking system for just transition processes; establishing or enhancing a climate data system; and putting in place a framework to track climate finance.
ICAT is an unincorporated multi-stakeholder partnership steered by the Donor Steering Committee (DSC), conformed by its donors, Austria; Canada; Germany; Italy; the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF); and ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF), and includes the UNFCCC Secretariat as the dedicated UN body with a climate change policy mandate, and UNOPS as an ex-officio member. The Initiative is managed by UNOPS on behalf of the DSC. Within UNOPS, the ICAT Secretariat manages ICAT day-to-day activities, coordinating and guiding the work of the implementing partners.
Cuba already has a certain level of institutional arrangements linked to monitoring and reporting issues from a climate transparency perspective. Cuba has already prepared three National Communications; the third one, along with the First Biennial Update Report, was submitted to the UNFCCC in 2020. In December 2024, Cuba submitted its First Biennial Transparency Report, fulfilling its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
The phase 1 and 2 of the ICAT project in Cuba has provided significant support in advancing the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) for tracking the 2020-NDC (up to 2030). Within the framework of its first two phases, focussing on: Developing a baseline and mitigation scenario for the Energy and AFOLU in the context of the 2020 Updated NDC, Designing a Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) for the five mitigation contributions contained in the NDC, Strengthening the country’s capacities to report its first Biennial Transparency Report (BTR), Conducting studies to enable the formulation of technical proposals to increase ambition in the NDC mitigation contributions, and Developing proposals for the establishment of a legal framework for data collection and a digital platform for managing that data.
For the phase 3 of the ICAT Cuba, the project aims at strengthening national capacities to develop a technical-methodological NDC proposal of the “below BAU” (Business As Unusual) type, as well as to create a monitoring and reporting proposal under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) currently being built by the country.
To achieve this general objective, the following five specific objectives are proposed:
Objective 1: Define, based on the policies, plans, and strategies approved in the country, the mitigation measures (PAMs) that can enhance the increase of ambition in the NDC over the medium term (2040).
Objective 2: Strengthen the information system to increase transparency in the management of the medium-term NDC (2040).
Objective 3: Establish methodologies, define assumptions, and adapt tools for assessing the impact of PAMs on GHG emission trends and on NDC indicators for each scenario.
Objective 4: Evaluate the impact of PAMs on GHG emission trends for each medium-term scenario (2040) and develop a technical proposal for a “below BAU” type NDC.
Objective 5: Develop a proposal to modify the procedures and guidelines of the national ETF based on the results obtained for a “below-trend” NDC.
For the ICAT implementation in Cuba, a climate mitigation and MRV expert is required for working in close collaboration with the National ICAT leading coordinator and with other national technical consultants, in order to ensure the completion of outputs and submissions of technical deliverables indicated in the work plan of the project.
The consultant will work in close coordination with the ICAT national leading coordinator and with the Project Coordinator in UNEP CCC, who will supervise technically and follow up on the compliance with the deliverables and the supporting tasks included. Those deliverables will be reviewed and certified within a period of no more than 5 days, after their receipt by the UNEP CCC Project Coordinator. As a result of the consultancy, a document will be produced establishing the baseline for the period covering the 2020 NDC, the 2025 NDC (NDC 3.0), and up to 2040, as well as the mitigation measures encompassing the 2020 and 2025 NDCs and potential additional mitigation measures through 2040.
The consultancy includes the following outputs: A document containing the baseline for the period covering the 2020 NDC, the 2025 NDC (NDC 3.0), and up to 2040, utilizing the GACMO tool.
1. A report (proceedings) of the workshops held to identify mitigation measures and potential additional measures covering the 2020 NDC, the 2025 NDC, and up to 2040. It is proposed to hold two workshops in the first week of March, lasting two days each: one workshop for the Energy sector (Electricity Generation, Energy Efficiency, Transport) and another for the Agroforestry sector (Forestry, Livestock, Sugar Cane Industry).
2. A document containing mitigation measures covering the 2020 and 2025 NDCs and potential additional mitigation measures for the 2025–2040 period. The analysis will be based primarily on: − Documents recently adopted by the Government, and − Results of completed projects and studies: implementation results and projections of ‘Tarea Vida’; the Energy Transition Strategy; the Livestock Development Program; and the Forest Reference Level based on results obtained from the REDD+ project with the GCF (Green Climate Fund)
The following list shows the main deliverables where the climate mitigation and MRV expert will be expected to lead : The expert will have the main responsibility of submitting the following deliverables: D1: Document containing the baseline for the period covering the 2020 NDC, the 2025 NDC (NDC 3.0), and up to 2040 (2020–2040). D2: Proceedings (Summary Report) of the workshops held to identify mitigation measures and potential additional measures covering the 2020 NDC, the 2025 NDC, and up to 2040. D3: Document containing the baseline for the 2020–2040 period, the mitigation measures encompassing the 2020 and 2025 NDCs, and potential additional mitigation measures for the 2025–2040 period.