The ICAT Assessment Guides aim to help policymakers and other users assess the impacts of countries’ climate policies and actions. They can play a critical role in supporting effective policymaking, processes to prepare and implement Nationally Determined Contributions, and to prepare for reporting under the Enhanced Transparency Framework of the Paris Agreement. 

The series of guides includes those for assessing GHG policy impacts in five sectors – Renewable Energy, Transport Pricing, Forestry, Agriculture and Buildings Efficiency – and three cross-cutting guides focusing on Sustainable Development, Transformational Change and Non-State and Subnational Action. These impact assessment methodologies are supported by two process guides covering Stakeholder Participation and Technical Review. 

Capacity building modules already exist to complement the Sustainable Development, Stakeholder Participation and Transformational Change guides, and now a new set of modules, developed by the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI), is available for the Forestry and Agriculture guides.

The modules provide didactic presentations on key content from the respective ICAT guides in a self-paced format, incorporating quizzes, exercises, examples, and templates to facilitate interactive learning, designed to give users the opportunity to go through them in a focussed and modular way. Action buttons give the choice to merely focus on a few parts or methodological steps of interest, or to explore examples and experiences on the exact topic in which a user is interested.

The format and accessibility of the capacity building modules – each developed as a 4-part powerpoint slidedeck – means that they can be used and tailored to training sessions and workshops in countries or used by other stakeholders by simply downloading them from the ICAT toolbox.