Ministry of Sustainable Development Commits to ICAT Project Cooperation Agreements

Dr. Kenrick Williams, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management signed two key project cooperation agreements with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) under the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT).

The first agreement is for the implementation of the ICAT Belize project - Phase 2. Phase 1 of the project was successfully completed in August 2022. The objectives of phase 2 include strengthening national and institutional

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Dear Valued BTL Customer, capacities to support the implementation of the national climate change monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system under ICAT phase 1 and enhancing sector, sub-national and non-state actor level support and integration into the national MRV system. The country will further institutionalise the arrangements for collecting data for the national MRV system in a consultative process with all stakeholders and enhance capacities to assess, track and report on climate change relevant information. The cost to implement ICAT phase 2 is US$170,000 for the period January 2023 to August 2024.

The second agreement is centred on the “Enhancing the National Capacities in Belize to Track and Report on Climate Finance” project. A few of the specific goals of this project include defining climate finance and establishing the parameters of climate finance considering the national circumstances in Belize; developing a national methodological approach to identify the climate finance needs in line with the national climate change priority actions for reporting under the Biennial Transparency Report; and establishing and formalising the institutional arrangements for climate finance MRV, ensuring the engagement of the stakeholders is formalized allowing for effective operations of the national MRV system. The scope of the activities includes the country of Belize as a whole, consid- ering international and domestic public finance for the development of the climate finance MRV module system/platform. The cost of this project is US$169,875 for the period March 2023 to May 2024.

ICAT was established in 2015 at the COP that adopted the Paris Agreement to support the implementation of the agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework. It 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.