Description: 

With the aim of promoting effective implementation—strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change — while fostering mutual trust and confidence, the Paris Agreement under its Article 13 established the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF). The ETF seeks to provide clarity and track progress toward achieving each Party’s core plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as outlined in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). In Article 4, the Paris Agreement also recognized the role of transparency for the NDCs. It furthermore aims to enhance transparency regarding the support provided and received, helping to align financial flows with pathways toward low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development. 

The road to fulfilling the ETF’s ultimate purpose has faced a myriad of challenges in developing countries, well known to practitioners in the field. These include capacity constraints, data gaps, fragmented institutional coordination, inconsistent information flows, lack of usable data systems, dependence on external project preparation facilities, and insufficient finance, among others. Despite these challenges, the preparation of the first BTRs and the work towards NDC 3.0 during 2024 and 2025 have revealed a notable (albeit uneven) increase in country capacities, marking a very different starting point from when the Paris Agreement was first approved. 

As of early 2026, many countries have finalized their BTR1 reports and are now preparing their BTR2, while advancing the implementation of their NDCs 3.0 submitted last year. With these milestones and timelines in place, this is a pivotal moment to reflect on the ETF’s overarching goal—strengthening climate action. It offers an important opportunity to assess the enhanced capacities, knowledge, tools, and expertise developed through transparency frameworks and ensure they effectively support NDC implementation. By doing so, countries will be well equipped to foster implementation and demonstrate tangible progress by year’s end.

In this context, the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), in collaboration with partners, is organizing the 2026 Global Transparency Community Meetings. Under the theme of Transparency to Drive Effective Implementation of NDC 3.0, the Global Transparency Community Meetings will bring together senior policymakers, transparency and NDC focal points, global transparency practitioners, climate experts from developing countries across the globe. It will provide a platform to encourage exchange of experience and peer-to-peer learning on shared challenges and solutions on how

The event is jointly organized by the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency – Global Support Programme (CBIT-GSP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with technical support from the UN Climate Change secretariat, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement (PATPA).