Scenes of flooding and storms can show us just how much weather and climate affects our lives. Climate change threatens our ability to ensure global food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. The global response to climate change today will determine how we feed future generations tomorrow.

To combat climate change and its impacts, the Paris Agreement was signed by 195 countries representing their commitment to limit the rise of the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius. To reach this goal, each country has developed individual climate commitments, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). But how can countries ensure everyone is contributing to the common cause in a fair and transparent way?

In order to build confidence in the process, the Paris Agreement includes a key element referred to as the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) for action and support. Designed to promote transparency and mutual trust, the framework is based on existing transparency arrangements set up under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), commonly known as Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework.

Transparency of action refers to information each country has to provide on a regular basis in order to track the progress of implementing NDCs, national greenhouse gas inventory reports and information related to climate change impacts and adaptation.​ Transparency of support refers to clarity on the support provided and received for mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer and capacity-building. Developed countries should provide information on the support they have provided, while developing countries should provide information on support required and received. For many countries, capacity-building support is a vital, yet complex task  in the implementation these new requirements.

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