Colombia is a topographically diverse country traversed by the Andes Mountains and with lowland plains in the east. Due to a combination of political, geographic and social factors, Colombia is recognized as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The country is ranked 92 out of 181 countries in the 2021 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Index, which summarises a country’s vulnerability to climate change and other global challenges against its readiness to improve resilience. 

Colombia ratified the Paris Agreement in 2017 and submitted its initial nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the UNFCCC in 2018. In 2020, Colombia updated its NDC, increasing its ambition and pledging to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve this goal, Colombia has defined a series of policies, plans and programmes, including the sectoral and territorial comprehensive climate change plans and the nationally appropriate mitigation actions, which guide emission reduction policies and lay the groundwork for implementation at local levels. Although international commitments and agreements have been led by the national government, reaching Colombia’s ambitious emission reduction goals will involve efforts from other parties, including local and municipal governments and private actors. 

In Colombia, ICAT support has helped to quantify some of the contributions of Colombian subnational and non-state actors to the reduction of GHG emissions. 

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) supports improved transparency and capacity building under the Paris Agreement. ICAT works closely with its partner countries to develop policy-focused, priority-driven projects that develop the information and data frameworks and related capacity to improve the implementation, tracking and enhancement of their NDCs and reporting. ICAT’s approach is country led.

ICAT began working with Colombia in 2020, following discussions with national stakeholders to identify the country’s climate action transparency priorities. These discussions highlighted a strong desire to build on work of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS), specifically its work to coordinate NDC tracking and to quantify contributions of GHG reductions from different actors under the country’s measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system. ICAT’s scoping process identified the need to track mitigation actions of private sector and city level actors to reach the ambitious emissions reduction goal set out in Colombia’s NDC.

The ICAT project partnered with MADS, with WWF Colombia contracted as the national implementing partner responsible for delivery of the project. ICAT’s international implementing partner in Colombia, the World Resource Institute (WRI), working in collaboration with NewClimate Institute, has supported project delivery through a technical advisory role. 

Integrating data from subnational and non-state actors

The aim of the ICAT project was to quantify the aggregate impact of mitigation actions carried out by non-state actors (e.g., companies with productive activities in Colombia) and subnational actors in the territories (e.g., cities and departments). This work was supported by the application of ICAT’s non-state and subnational action (NSA) assessment guide. The project was carried out in parallel with the update of the Colombian NDC, with ICAT deliberately seeking to complement this process. 

During the initial stages of the project, a series of meetings were held with WWF Colombia, MADS and WRI to align and finalize the project scope, workplan and data sources to be used. In response to needs identified by MADS, the project focused its data collection and analysis on direct emissions and electricity consumption from companies in Colombia. For territories, the analysis was focused on the transport sector at the urban level. 

The ICAT project helped Colombia to identify relevant private sector actors by supporting a detailed review of existing government and other databases, followed by workshops led by WWF Colombia to introduce the project and capture data on companies’ existing mitigation goals and established inventories. Further, The ICAT project helped Colombia to identify relevant private sector actors by supporting a detailed review of existing government and other databases, followed by workshops led by WWF Colombia to introduce the project and capture data on companies’ existing mitigation goals and established inventories. Further, identification of relevant actors for cities and territories was based on research and individual meetings. This process helped to identify around 200 climate mitigation actions being taken by Colombian cities and companies. 

A process of detailed review and verification of these actions, coupled with stakeholder consultation, resulted in a final list of 48 actions      selected to be analysed using ICAT’s NSA guide. ICAT’s partners provided technical assistance on the use of the NSA guide and supported the WWF team to define the scope of the assessment. This included in-depth calls to discuss the functionalities of the guide, as well as providing ad-hoc training and guidance where needed.

Employing ICAT’s NSA guide in Colombia has provided useful and timely information that informed the country’s NDC update in 2020 and contributed to Colombia’s significantly increased ambition. The data and analysis generated also helped to identify gaps in climate ambition and data collection at the subnational level that can be addressed through future capacity building efforts. This was the first time Colombia had undertaken this type of analysis and it has enabled a much deeper understanding of the climate actions that subnational and non-state actors have committed to. It has also enabled analysis on whether these actions are being implemented. This is an important first step for building awareness on the methods and data needed to support this work moving forward. 

The ICAT project also helped to increase awareness and recognition of the value of assimilating climate actions across different levels, including awareness across the project team, MADS, private sector stakeholders and cities. Many private sector actors and subnational governments have since shown interest and commitment in helping to deliver the NDC, with mayors from several cities sending letters of commitment to MADS stating that they will provide information on actions implemented in their cities. 

The next steps for Colombia will include a confirmation process for additional climate mitigation actions to increase mitigation potential, as well as rolling out data collection in more cities to increase subnational participation in NDC implementation. Resources will also need to be focused on streamlining reporting and data collection for subnational and non-state climate actions to ensure climate actions are being implemented.