To enhance the capacity of experts in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, the Capacity-Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) and the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) collaborated to deliver a series of webinars on climate finance transparency. 

The series was delivered in Spanish, over three webinars, each covering a distinct aspect of climate finance transparency. This echoed the structure of the ICAT Climate Finance Transparency Guide, which introduced a step-by-step approach to establishing and using national frameworks for climate finance transparency. The three sessions covered, respectively:

• Governance, planning and classification
• Ex-ante needs assessment
• Tracking and reporting

The webinars featured expert presentations from ICAT implementing partners, including Gauss, UNEP-CCC and Perpectives Climate Group, as well as showcases of practical experiences from countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and others. More than 200 participants from over 20 countries participated in the series. 

Climate finance transparency encompasses the reliable measurement, accessible reporting, and expert review of information related to financial resources allocated for climate action. It enables countries to manage financial resources for climate action efficiently, analyzing needs and gaps in funding and tracking actual financial flows.

Countries in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean have recognized the value and importance of climate finance transparency frameworks for informed decision-making and resource mobilization. Aida Quintanilla, Department Chief, Ministry of Public Finance, Guatemala, highlighted in one of the webinars: 

“In order to make sound decisions regarding financing and to develop effective tools that attract investment or that are designed to channel public funding toward those actions, it is essential to have firsthand statistics that allow us to look ahead, to project, and to model, incorporating all relevant economic and macroeconomic variables.” 

Countries are at various stages of implementing frameworks for climate finance transparency. While some are using national systems to track financial flows partially, others require technical capacity-building and improved common understanding of climate finance within their institutional set-up. 

Gaps remain until countries can rely on comprehensive systems that provide an accurate picture of their country’s climate finance flows and needs, covering all types and sources of finance. Country representatives shared plans to strengthen national frameworks and capacity to this end, including through the application of the ICAT guide.