Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Tonga could soon be able to track its own progress towards achieving targets for reducing greenhouse emissions.
Tonga's Department of Climate Change is working with stakeholders and partners to submit a proposal on the setting-up of the Tonga Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) project.
The CBIT project comes under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement.
The project will cost US$1.3 million and is expected to run for three years if approved, and focuses on overcoming barriers in data management, institutional arrangements, and capacity-building.
The department worked with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in conducting a validation workshop for the CBIT project.
The GGGI said as part of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, signatories are expected to both set national targets for reducing green house gas emissions - referred to as climate change mitigation - and establish the key plans to adapt to climate change.
"This project will enhance Tonga's ability to establish and track the nation's progress towards these targets in a transparent manner, in line with what all parties to the Paris Agreement have agreed to," the GGGI said in a statement.
Mihwa Wi, project manager for CBIT at the Global Green Growth Institute, acknowledged the existing efforts and current progress under the Enhanced Transparency Framework.
"The CBIT project is designed to build on these established systems by strengthening them and addressing the existing gaps," she said.
Wi said the project offers significant capacity-building opportunities for all involved in climate actions, with the aim to be better equipped to contribute to Tonga's climate resilience and transparency goals.
The GGGI said while Tonga's greenhouse gas emissions are very small, requiring developed countries and large polluters to complete this same process sets a basis for showing how much small countries like Tonga are disproportionately suffering the consequences of climate change, while not having contributed to it in any significant way.