Group photo of participants to the training on Integrated Monitoring Reporting and Verification
The Climate Change Division (CCD) of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management, and Meteorology (MECDM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) hosted a week-long training on the Integrated Monitoring Reporting Verification System (iMRV). This is a great milestone achieved by the country towards fulfilling its commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Over 30 participants from government ministries, civil society organizations and the private sector converged at the Heritage Park Hotel to undergo hands-on training on the functionalities of the software, data structure and software capabilities. Participants from Ministries of National Planning and Development Coordination, Finance and Treasury Budget Unit, Agriculture and Livestock, Energy, Forestry, Transport and Waste Sectors had the opportunity to trial the tool and provide feedback for improvements to the software developers.
The iMRV system will enhance the capacity of the government to track the National GHG inventory, measure progress in mitigation and adaptation actions, track Means of Implementation (MOI) and measure the linkage and impact on the achievement of the National Development Strategy for Solomon Islands and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking at the official opening of the training, the new Minister for Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, Honourable Trevor Manemahaga highlighted that Climate Change is the single most defining issue facing the Pacific Islands including the Solomon Islands. As such, “It is befitting that I start my first official engagement as the Minister responsible on the important issue of iMRV”, said Hon. Manemahaga.
Hon. Manemahaga reminded participants and stakeholders that Solomon Islands is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement and its obligations to meet the reporting requirements under those global treaties. He further added that in line with Article 4 of the Paris Agreement each Party including the Solomon Islands has registered their Nationally Determined Contributions, highlighting the climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts. The Paris Agreement, explicitly set out a global action plan to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Article 13 of the Paris Agreement established the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) for action and support that promotes clarity of information and tracking of progress made to inform subsequent NDCs and Global Stocktake. The ETF supersede previous Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) arrangements under the UNFCCC and provides a framework whereby developed and developing country parties will report in the form of a Biennial Transparency Report replacing Biennial Reports and Biennial Update Reports.
For developing countries, and especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as the Solomon Islands, the ETF provisions require biennial reporting starting from 2024 of key components of the ETF: the National GHG inventory; information necessary to track progress towards the NDC; information related to adaptation; information on the Means of Implementation, which includes finance, technology development, and capacity building support needed and received, and support a technical expert review and a facilitative multilateral consideration of progress.
To track the key components of the ETF, the Climate Change Division (CCD) of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, with support from the UNDP, in a first-of-its-kind initiative has developed an iMRV (iMRV) system to integrate most of the domestic and international climate action monitoring, tracking, and reporting requirements with the software developer, Subbarao Consulting Services from New Zealand.
Honourable Manemahaga also spoke of the Solomon Islands Government’s intentions to link the iMRV system to the future development of a national carbon registry. He stressed that the software can only be useful and achieving its intended purpose if all stakeholders cooperate and take ownership and feed the software with all necessary data and information needed.
UNDP Operations Manager, Mr. Patrick Pee in his welcome remarks stated that UNDP is pleased to collaborate with Climate Change Division to develop the iMRV system to support its reporting obligations to UNFCCC. “UNDP has been supporting countries in the development of different types of MRVs and integrating them into the national system for nearly a decade. “Currently we support 125 countries globally under its Climate Promise initiative to address national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement,” said Mr. Pee. These pledges or NDCs are crucial stepping stones towards net zero emissions and meeting the Paris Goals. Similar MRV system was developed for Kenya, Uruguay, Vanuatu and many other countries.
This iMRV initiative was launched following a successful inception workshop held in February 2023 and went through various stages of development over the past months including consultation with government ministries on the data requirements of each of the NDC sectors and sub-sectors to develop the draft prototypes and agreed on detailed software specifications. A feedback workshop was held in October 2023 to test draft user cases and to provide feedback on the data flows and structures for each of the iMRV modules. The feedback gathered was used to finalise the functionalities of the six iMRV modules comprising of: Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI); GHG Mitigation; Adaptation; Support Needed and Received (Climate Finance); Sustainable Development Goal Tracking; and Administration and User Management.
The iMRV system was develop through the financial support of the Australian Government (DFAT), partnership and technical support of UNDP, the CCD/MECDM together with Subbarao Consulting Services.
The Solomon Islands Government like all Parties to UNFCCC must submit its Biennial Transparency Report by December 31st 2024.
Ends//