Montenegro Climate Change Action MRV System

Aether has been supporting Montenegro in developing a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for its climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. Working with the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, the team analysed the institutional arrangements and data flows surrounding national climate action. Our team built an online data management site, or Portal, to collect and store data on climate change actions. This data is crucial for international reporting requirements and informed decision making and has supported the development of Montenegro’s 2nd Biennial Update Report (SBUR).

The challenge

As an EU Accession country and non-Annex I Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Montenegro has a growing number of legal reporting requirements concerning climate change actions. Climate resilience is also important to Montenegro as it increasingly experiences the damaging effects of climate change. Good quality data on vulnerabilities and adaptation actions is required to make informed decisions.

The challenge was to develop the institutional capacity and improve data collection and management processes to ensure a transparent and accessible flow of information for international reporting and national policy development.

The solution

Through a series of stakeholder engagements, a picture of the national institutional arrangements, data flows, expertise, tools, system and engagement activity needs was developed.  Gaps in capacity were identified and recommendations provided within a framework of actions to improve the capacity and sustainability of the MRV system.  Aether also developed an MRV Portal suitable for managing the information associated with Montenegro’s MRV system.  This online data management tool could be used to engage a wide range of stakeholders in regular, efficient and transparent data collection, and for the management, analysis and reporting of that data.

The result

The MRV system framework is enabling Montenegro to put in place steps to establish a strong and valuable team of experts, well engaged stakeholders and with data gathering systems in place to inform decision makers on climate actions.  The MRV Portal also offers a reliable archive of information relevant to climate change mitigation, adaptation and finance that can be used for reporting as well as updating national decision-making processes on progress and challenges. This information is available for international reporting, national policy making and attracting climate finance for future green development projects in Montenegro. The Portal will ensure that meeting international reporting requirements is efficient and the reporting burden is minimised whilst allowing Montenegro to use the data as an evidence base to address national priorities.

The MRV Portal and data have already been used to facilitate the development of several outputs including Montenegro’s SBUR and an interactive data visualisation. Using the MRV Portal as a store of information simplified the compilation of the SBUR and will continue to improve the report writing process for future submissions. Aether also worked closely with national mitigation and inventory experts to produce an innovative data visualisation that can be used to engage stakeholders at all levels. It can be found here.

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