Climate Change Cook Islands hosted a sub-regional workshop last week focusing on the Paris Agreement Article 13 focusing on the digital tools Pacific Island countries are required to report on.

The workshop was attended by delegations from Niue, Samoa, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, March 25-28 March.

Cook Islands Climate Change Director, Wayne King says the main objective of the workshop was to train officials on the Paris Agreements Article 13 related to transparency and communications to the UNFCCC Secretariat.

“Transparency in this context means how a country reports its obligations under the Paris Agreement and can cover national domestic actions to the international agreement.

“Transparency for the Cook Islands enables us to gauge progress of other large emitting countries and how they are taking national action under the Paris Agreement.”

With the next steps of these discussions expected to be held in Bonn, Germany in June, King said the connection to the Subsidiary Bodies Meetings in Bonn is strong and those discussions on tools and formats would be detailed further.

“The workshop went over the digital tools that countries are required to report on, in our case our Greenhouse Gas Inventory, or how much emissions are there and from which sectors, such as transport and energy, along with agriculture.

“Our local expert has been training some young youth to better understand what greenhouse gases are predominant in the CKI (Cook Islands),” King added.

Focal Point for Climate Change Office Rarotonga base in Atiu, Ngametua Mokoroa says the workshop was a great learning experience, and she gained valuable knowledge about the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), the Biennial Transparency Report (BTR), Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Management, and data collection.

“One key takeaway for me was how important data collection is for understanding climate change. I look forward to working with our Island Government and other ministries to create a solid database for Atiu.

“This will help us better understand climate change impacts and develop programs to build resilience and adapt to the changes,” she added.

Meanwhile, the expected outcome of the workshop was to raise awareness among national stakeholders about credible national reporting under the ETF- enhanced transparency network and empower national stakeholders by sharing challenges and best practices to overcome difficulties and challenges and provide knowledge and skills needed to navigate transparency requirements and the ETF reporting tools.