The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) aims to help countries better assess the impact of their climate policies and actions and meet their transparency commitments. This is achieved by strengthening the overall transparency capacity of countries, including the ability to assess the contribution of climate policies and actions to the achievement of countries’ development goals, and by providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence-based policies. ICAT’s work is aimed at maximizing the attraction of national experience and encouraging the exchange of experience.
ICAT is an unincorporated multi-stakeholder partnership steered and funded by the Donor Steering Committee (DSC), conformed by its donors, the Children Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF); Climate Works Foundation (CWF); the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU); and the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land, and Sea (IMELS), as well as the UNFCCC and UNOPS as ex-officio members. The initiative is managed by UNOPS on behalf of the DSC. Within UNOPS, the ICAT Secretariat manages ICAT’s day-to-day activities, coordinating and guiding the work of the implementing partners.
In order for developing countries to develop and implement ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the actions they commit to need to be anchored in sound data and information to underpin national policies that back up the actions required. Strong transparency frameworks enable national ownership, and the integration of relevant stakeholders in policy processes, and they ensure accountability, at the national and international levels, and in terms of policy and finance. An independent external evaluation recognized ICAT’s impact in supporting countries to create such frameworks, enabling transformational policies based on sound evidence of their climate and local development impacts.