As part of the Paris Agreement, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have agreed to establish a Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT). The CBIT will aim to strengthen the institutional and technical capacities of developing countries to meet the enhanced transparency requirements in the Paris Agreement, leading up to 2020 and beyond.

COP 21 decided that the aim of CBIT is to:

• Strengthen national institutions for transparency-related activities in line with national priorities;
• Provide relevant tools, training and assistance for meeting the provisions stipulated in Article 13 of the Agreement; and
• Assist in the improvement of transparency over time.

Transparency within the Paris Agreement

As part of the Paris Agreement, all countries agreed to an enhanced transparency framework for action and support (Article 13), with built-in flexibility which takes into account Parties' different capacities and builds upon collective experience. The purpose of the framework for transparency of actions is to provide a clear understanding of climate change action in light of the objective of the Convention as set out in its Article 2, including clarity and tracking of progress towards achieving Parties' individual nationally determined contributions, and Parties' adaptation actions, including good practices, priorities, needs and gaps, to inform the global stock takes under Article 14 of the Paris Agreement.   

Specifically, all countries committed to provide the following information:

• A national inventory report of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases, prepared using good practice methodologies accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties servicing as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement; 
• Information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving its nationally determined contribution under Article 4.

The Paris Agreement also states that countries should provide information on climate change impacts and adaptation under Article 7 of the Agreement.

The purpose of the framework for transparency of support is to provide clarity on support provided and received by relevant individual Parties, and, to the extent possible, to provide a full overview of aggregate financial support provided, to inform the global stocktake. Developed country Parties shall, and other Parties that provide support should, provide information on financial, technology transfer, and capacity-building support provided to developing country Parties under the relevant Articles, and developing country Parties should provide information on financial, technology transfer, and capacity-building support needed and received under these Articles.

Role of the GEF in the CBIT as per the Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement requested the GEF to support the establishment of the CBIT through voluntary contributions during GEF-6 and future replenishment cycles. The decision also requested that the GEF include in its COP 22 report the progress of the work in the design, development, and implementation of the new initiative from 2016, and to assess the CBIT implementation in the context of the upcoming seventh review of the financial mechanism for UNFCCC. Fund Website »​