1.    Introduction 

The CBIT-GSP is a global capacity-building project funded by the Global Environment Facility, implemented by UNEP, and executed by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre - to support countries in the transition towards the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF)[1]. The objective of the project is to provide streamlined support and capacity building at the country, regional, and global levels to enable Non-Annex I countries under the UNFCCC and developing countries under the Paris Agreement to better respond to reporting requirements and to catalyze increased ambition within country NDCs to contribute to the stated temperature goal of well below 2 degrees and if possible 1.5 degrees. 

1.2.    About Eritrea ETF reporting

Eritrea ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1995 an acceded to the UNFCCC on April 24, 1996, as a Non-Annex I Party and is obliged to submit information in accordance with Article 4, paragraph 1 of the Convention. Eritrea has been periodically reporting to the UNFCCC to comply with the obligation under Article 4, paragraph 1(a), and Article 12, paragraph 1(a) of the UNFCCC which requires developing, periodically updating, and publishing the reports on the national inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all its greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol using comparable methodologies and following the provisions of Decision 17/CP.8. 

Consequently, Eritrea has submitted three National Communications (NC) and one Biennial Update Report (BUR) namely, the Initial National Communication (INC) in 2000, the Second National Communication in 2012, the Third National Communication in 2021 and the First Biennial Update Reports (BUR) in 2021. Following Decisions 1/CP.19 and 1/CP.20 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Eritrea also prepared its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) on 19 June 2018 which later became the country’s first NDC. 

Eritrea has not fulfilled its reporting obligations to the Convention consistently and has not submitted its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) this is provided for in Paris Agreement (Article 4, paragraph 2) where all parties were required to submit updated NDCs by 2020 (e.g., by 2020, 2025, 2030), regardless of their respective implementation time frames. However, Eritrea has an opportunity to adjust time their existing nationally determined contribution with a view to enhancing its level of ambition (Article 4, paragraph 11).

The assessment will report findings of the current institutional arrangements and capacities in Eritrea and thus identifies the gaps and recommendations that will contribute to improved ETF reporting for the state of Eritrea.

1.3. The purpose of this assessment 

The intention of this assessment is to understand the status quo of Eritrea’s institutional arrangements for the Enhanced Transparency Framework under the Paris Agreement. The assessment of existing capacities and or gaps in the relevant institutions addressed the importance of robust institutional arrangements for climate change reporting while providing insights into the roles of institutions and policy frameworks for managing institutional cooperation, among others. 

1.4.The aim and objective of the assessment 

The main objective of the assessment is to establish the status of capacity and institutional arrangements to provide recommendations that will effectively support the continuous preparation of NCs and BTRs and implementation of the Modalities, Procedures, and Guidelines for the transparency framework for action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement as contained in the annex to decision 18/CMA.1. 

1.5. Approach and structure of the assessment report

In cognizant of the National Capacity Needs Self-Assessment which was conducted in 2006 for Eritrea with a focus on UNFCCC among others (MoLWE 2006), finalizing this assessment will be achieved in five steps; i) Literature review ii) developing a draft report (with gaps) iii) Engaging the country focal point for CBIT-GSP iv) stakeholder engagement and v) filling the gaps in the draft report and finalizing the assessment report presented in Figure 1.

                                   Figure 1: Key Steps to assess institutional arrangement.

The report is structured as follows: firstly, it presents the current institutional arrangements and capacities for conducting GHG inventories, stakeholder engagement in the inventory process, the coverage and methodology used to conduct GHG inventories, as well as the control mechanisms and procedures. Secondly, the report covers the current institutional arrangements and capacities for progress on tracking the NDC reporting on NDC, it gives the background to Eritrea’s NDC, the current institutional arrangements and capacity for tracking NDC, and the emission projection and scenario building capacity. Thirdly, the report covers institutional arrangements and the capacity of conducting climate change impacts and adaptation. Fourthly, the report covers the overall institutional arrangements and capacity for tracking the support received and needed, and finally, the conclusions which summarize the findings.

The final report will be shared in the due course.

[1] https://climate-transparency-platform.org/about