Washington, DC - The Department of State announces its intention to provide $15 million for the Capacity-Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) over the next three years, subject to appropriations. This initiative was first proposed by the United States and the European Union at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP-21) in December 2015 in order to ensure that all countries will be prepared to meet the new, robust transparency requirements in the Paris Agreement.

‎The enhanced transparency framework agreed to in Paris contains requirements that are critical to ensuring that countries are implementing the Agreement, including the emission reduction targets that they put forward last year. Countries are to provide regular updates on their progress towards reducing emissions, and on their support for others to address climate change. Countries are also encouraged to report on adaptation and climate impacts.

To meet the new reporting requirements, many developing countries will need technical and institutional capacity-building support.

CBIT was designed to address these needs, and to help developing countries begin to build over time the institutional and technical capacity they will need to prepare transparent, accurate, and timely reports. In particular, the initiative will help countries develop better quality greenhouse gas emissions tracking and other technical measurement activities.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) will administer the CBIT and the World Bank will serve as trustee. The GEF has a demonstrated track record of providing capacity-building support to assist developing countries in meeting their reporting obligations under multilateral environmental agreements. Based on this established track record, countries selected the GEF to serve to administer CBIT during the negotiations on the Paris Agreement.