Within the framework of the project Increasing the transparency and documentation of the private sector's contribution to national climate commitments. that Libélula, through its platform nexos+1, The webinar “...the UNEP-DTU Partnership" was held on August 20, 2009.“Developing a reporting framework for the private sector focused on assessing sustainable development”. If you were unable to participate, here are the key aspects to consider when documenting how your organization is contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals and targets.
About the Dragonfly Project & UNEP-DTU Partnership
To achieve the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the global average temperature increase well below 2°C, relative to pre-industrial levels, and to continue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C, every effort that results in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) counts. In this context, Maria Paz Cigarán (CEO of Libélula) opened the webinar by highlighting the crucial role of the private sector in catalyzing climate action from companies in Latin America, and thus contributing to the greater ambition of countries' climate commitments. However, although several initiatives have been taking place at all scales in the region, they are still not measured, monitored or reported. In fact, according to the Science Based Targets (2020) which collects information from companies that pledge science-based climate commitments, of the 854 companies that registered their commitment worldwide, only 4.0% were from Latin America.
In order to establish an adequate transparency process for the private sector, this project seeks to answer 3 fundamental questions:
(1) Why do companies in Latin America take and report climate action?,
(2) What is the path you are following to transform your companies? How are you doing it?, y
(3) How to catalyze greater climate action in the region and have it reported and made visible, contributing to the countries' climate goals?
The results of ongoing studies addressing these questions will be shared in subsequent issues of this newsletter.
The importance of documenting your organization's contribution to Sustainable Development
Companies have announced important climate commitments based on the different actions they have been developing. Thus, Fatemeh Bakhtiari (Senior Researcher, UNEP-DTU Partnership) argued that documenting how and how much the private sector has been contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals and targets is key to promoting and scaling up its participation in increasing ambition to meet climate commitments under the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda; both as part of national efforts and to give credibility to the numerous international pledges made by these actors.
On the other hand, demonstrating how these actors have made and can make important contributions will help lay the groundwork for sustained changes in economic, political, social and technical systems, as well as attract private investors to improve the financing of low-carbon projects aligned with the SDGs.
In organizational terms, measuring and reporting climate action not only raises awareness of climate change within companies, but also serves as the backbone of an appropriate action plan, including the evaluation and monitoring of its impact. In addition, it helps decision-makers develop effective strategies to achieve sustainable development objectives in the company by better understanding the impacts associated with policies and actions.
On the key aspects of documenting your contribution to Sustainable Development
Fatemeh Bakhtiari also shared through this space the key aspects to systematically assess and report on the multiple impacts of climate action through standardized formats, under the framework of the ICAT methodology:
- Prioritize actions that can contribute to more than one goal. Through proper design, an action or set of actions can address the SDGs, GHG reduction, climate change adaptation and economic development.
- Determine evaluation objectives which should consider the relevant impacts of actions on sustainable development in an integrated manner, in three dimensions: environmental, social and economic impacts.
- Define a baseline scenario and an action implementation scenario.. The estimated difference between the two scenarios corresponds to the impact of the action.
- Determine monitoring indicators over time that are useful for understanding whether the action is on track, although it will not explain why the changes have occurred.
- Choose a feasible level of accuracy according to the objectives and available resources. Consider the number of impact indicators to monitor, qualitative and quantitative impact assessment, data and methodologies to be applied.
- Characterize each impact in terms of the probability of its occurrence, its magnitude, its nature (positive or negative) and the reporting of its results; always based on evidence.
- The progress monitoring must be aligned with with existing and emerging national frameworks, targets and indicators.
The recording of the webinar and the slides can be found at here.
Alicia Medina Valdiviezo
Project Manager - Libélula
