About the Project
Strengthening the Capacity of Institutions in the Philippines to Comply with the Transparency Requirements of the Paris Agreement (CBIT PH)
The Climate Change Commission (CCC), acting as the Executing Agency, together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), functioning as the co-lead, is set to implement the Global Environment Facility-funded project entitled, ‘Strengthening the Capacity of Institutions in the Philippines to Comply with the Transparency Requirements of the Paris Agreement.’ The Manila Observatory (MO) performs a critical role as it functions both as Executing Agency Support Partner (EASP) and Project Management Unit (PMU), mandating the institution to perform daily logistical operations and provide scientific and technical expertise.
The project, also known as ‘Capacity-Building Initiative for Transparency’ or CBIT, is embedded in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement, which establishes the Enhanced Transparency Framework as a means to better track and evaluate the progress of each state party in contributing to the 1.5°C climate ambition. In the Adoption of the Paris Agreement (Decision 1/CP. 21), the objectives of the project were delineated:
a) To strengthen national institutions for transparency-related activities in line with national priorities;
b) To provide relevant tools, training, and assistance for meeting the provisions stipulated in Article 13 of the Agreement;
c) To assist in the improvement of transparency over time.
The institutionalization of the ETF highlights the centrality of climate transparency in tackling the climate crisis. Robust climate information systems boost transparency and international accountability, particularly by enabling transparent tracking of mitigation efforts, adaptation responses, and finance flows, monitoring the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and fostering global comparability of climate efforts.
The Philippines, recognizing the importance of transparency, has committed to improving its Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems and developing a robust Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory platform. Several efforts, spanning pre- and post-Paris Agreement, have already been initiated: the Climate Change Act (Republic Act 9729, amended by Republic Act 10174) established the Climate Change Commission, which was mandated to develop the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP); Executive Order 174 (2014) assigned sectoral lead agencies for documenting, archiving, and monitoring sector-specific GHG emissions; and the National Integrated Climate Change Database and Information Exchange System (NICCDIES) was created as a central climate information portal.
While these initiatives have built the country’s capacity, several challenges persist in fully complying with the ETF. The CBIT Philippines project identifies three key barriers:
1) The country has weak technical capacities. Currently, the technical capacity of key government agencies is impeded by high staff turnover and the lack of targeted capacity-building initiatives. This leads to a NICCDIES portal that is highly underutilized and incomplete.
2) The country has incoherent institutional arrangements. As measuring and managing sectoral GHG data is distributed among several public institutions, data requirements are often interpreted incoherently. A functional inter-agency technical working group for climate reporting and a standardized manual of operations have yet to be established.
3) The country has a weak knowledge management system. There is no centralized learning repository that provides access to standardized training manuals on topics related to MRV and GHG inventory management. Moreover, the country has limited international exposure to successful climate information systems.
The CBIT Philippines Project aims to respond to the three barriers to comply with Article 13 of the Paris Agreement. Moreover, institutionalizing MRV systems will produce several co-benefits: enhanced domestic climate policy formulation, improved resource mobilization and access to climate finance, strengthened institutional capacities and governance systems, and synergies with national development goals, apart from the given alignment with global standards and international leadership.
The project has four key components that are set to be implemented over the next three years.
Component 1. Strengthening institutional arrangements and coordination for improved transparency over time.
Acknowledging that the institutional arrangements and coordination are currently weak, incoherent, and non-institutionalized, the project aims to strengthen relationships among national and private institutions to coordinate and manage the sectoral and national GHG inventory system. The project targets to establish functional GHG emission sector hub working groups for 6 sectors – Energy, Waste, Agriculture, FOLU, IPPU, and Transport – and establish technology infrastructure for MRV and GHG data collection, processing, and interpretation.
Component 2 – Strengthening the institutional and technical capacity of national government departments and private sector actors for enhanced transparency reporting.
As the country currently lacks the capacity and equipment to measure and monitor sector-specific emissions, CBIT Philippines strengthens the technical capacity of stakeholders to collect, process, and analyze activity data and feed these into the national GHG inventory. This will be implemented by conducting a capacity needs assessment, developing tools such as protocols and technical guides, and training national and subnational stakeholders.
Component 3 – Learning and knowledge sharing.
There is an absence of coordination, learning, and data-sharing between the government and the private sector, and ongoing transparency initiatives are not linked to similar endeavours at the national, regional, and global levels. The objective of this component is to strengthen learning and sharing between the project and other ongoing transparency initiatives. Thus, an ETF System Focal Unit will be established to facilitate knowledge sharing, exposure visits for selected stakeholders will be conducted, and knowledge management products will be disseminated.
Component 4 – Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E).
As the project is highly complex and resource-intensive, a gender-inclusive and comprehensive M&E system must be integrated and applied throughout its implementation. Project delivery will be enhanced through the submission of quarterly M&E reports, regular Project Implementation Reports (PIRs), and independent evaluation cycles conducted in accordance with the GEF and CI-GEF evaluation policies, among other M&E protocols.
The implementation of these four components involves the active engagement of a wide range of public and private stakeholders. Apart from government agencies, the project endeavours to involve civil society organizations, local communities, and academic institutions to ensure effective and inclusive GHG transparency. Figure 1 illustrates the organizational management of the project.
Accountability Grievance Mechanism
The CBIT Philippines Accountability and Grievance Mechanism (AGM) provides a safe, accessible, and confidential process for stakeholders to raise concerns or complaints related to the project. The AGM is open to all project stakeholders, including communities, government agencies, project staff, contractors, and vulnerable groups. Stakeholders may submit concerns through the link below.
Link to the AGM Linktree page: CBITPhilippines | Linktree
Supported by:
Global Environment Facility
Led by:
Conservation International GEF Agency
Executed by:
Climate Change Commission
Manila Observatory
In partnership with:
Department of the Environment and Natural Resources
Department of Agriculture
Department of Energy
Department of Transportation
