Standards Development

Scope

This NWIP is for the development of an international standard to establish an approach and methodology for a country-based mechanism to channel climate finance to local government authorities in least developed countries (LDCs) and other developing countries to support climate change adaptation and to increase local resilience thereby contributing to achievement of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The country-based mechanism combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) – which ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level while offering strong incentives for performance improvements in enhanced resilience – with technical and capacity-building support.

This international standard would be applicable to any level of government, donor and international organization that is interested in implementing a country-based mechanism for channelling climate finance to local governments in LDCs and other developing countries to support climate change adaptation and resilience, aligned with and that contributes to implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

Purpose

The Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Facility, developed and supported by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has been operational since 2011. The LoCAL mechanism and methodology have been tested and refined in 14 countries (Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Cambodia, The Gambia, Ghana, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Tanzania and Tuvalu), with 6 additional country initiatives under preparation (Uganda, Sao Tome e Principe, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Malawi, and Liberia) or scoped (Chad). LoCAL provides an approach for financing local level climate adaptation and addresses the financing gap that local governments often face. Local government authorities in least developed countries (LDCs) are in a unique position to identify climate change adaptation responses that best meet local needs, and typically have the mandate to undertake the small- to medium-sized adaptation investments needed to build climate resilience. LoCAL can be tailored to specific country circumstances to increase awareness of and capacities to respond to climate change at the local level, mainstream climate change adaptation into local government planning, budgeting systems and investments, and increase the amount of finances available to local governments for verifiable climate change adaptation. The LoCAL mechanism supports local adaptation by channelling climate finance to local government authorities (LGAs) in least developed and developing countries.

It thus aims to contribute to the country’s achievement of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals – particularly poverty eradication (SDG 1), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and climate action (SDG 13) through local level action. LoCAL increases local level climate change awareness and capacities, integrates climate change adaptation into local government planning and budgeting in a participatory and gender-sensitive manner, and increases the financing available to local governments for climate change adaptation. LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) – which ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level while offering strong incentives for performance improvements– with technical and capacity-building support.

The technical features of PBCRGs include a set of minimum conditions for accessing the grants, performance measures to incentivize performance improvement and a menu of eligible investments to guide the selection of interventions, in a contextualised risk-informed, participatory and gender sensitive manner. The relative performance of the local governments is assessed annually independently and inform the size of the following year allocation, as well as the technical and capacitybuilding assistance offered. LoCAL secures the channelling of funds working with national systems financing decentralisation, through a tailor-made approach.

LoCAL was developed as a standard approach and mechanism for channelling climate financing from national governments to local governments. In April 2019, the LoCAL experience guidelines were approved by the LDC Expert Group to the UNFCCC as supplementary material to the NAP technical guidelines of the UNFCCC. LoCAL is therefore becoming a standard, country-based mechanism, recognized by LDC themselves at the UNFCCC and by the NDC partnership, as a proven avenue for the vertical integration of the NAP and NDC.

Now that LoCAL has been tested and refined in 14 countries with evidence of mainstreaming climate change adaptation in local governments, UNCDF would like to extend this tool to more countries and to develop this methodology and approach into an ISO international standard. As more countries become interested in using the LoCAL mechanism, it is important to ensure consistency and quality assurance of the methodology, thus an ISO standard is needed. A standardized approach supports capacity building and learning across local governments and countries. An ISO standard will also promote more awareness and traction for the LoCAL mechanism, and thereby contributing to further mainstream climate change adaptation.

Consider the following: Is there a verified market need for the proposal? What problem does this standard solve? What value will the document bring to end-users? See Annex C of the ISO/IEC Directives part 1 for more information.

See the following guidance on justification statements on ISO Connect: https://connect.iso. org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=27590861

LoCAL was developed by UNCDF to respond to challenges faced by local governments in their contributions to adaptation. These challenges include:

-A lack of appropriate budgetary allocations from the national level, leading to unfunded mandates for climate-sensitive sectors;

-Weak or lack of institutional capacities to deal with climate change issues;

-Local governments’ inability to absorb the incremental costs of climate change adaptation;

-Main sources of climate finance are often only available and accessed through application to national programmes that have specific, earmarked arrangements and which fall outside of established decision-making processes and the public expenditure management cycle.

An international standard developed by using the LoCAL mechanism will support local governments in their contributions to climate change adaptation by providing a standardized methodology for chanelling climate financing from national to local governments, while supporting localization of nationally agreed goals, for instance the SDGs, NDCs and NAPs. Countries adapting the LoCAL mechanism will increase capacity building of local governments in integrating and mainstreaming climate change adaptation into their planning and budgeting processes. Currently there is a lack of international standards to support local governments in addressing climate change adaptation, including financial mechanisms. Local governments often lack the financial resources for adaptation investments, yet they are the ones that are often the closest to understanding local needs when it comes to climate change adaptation. Local governments in LDCs also often lack the capacity to address climate change adaptation, the capacity building component of LoCAL supports this challenge.

Consider the following: Is there a verified market need for the proposal? What problem does this standard solve? What value will the document bring to end-users? See Annex C of the ISO/IEC Directives part 1 for more information. See the following guidance on justification statements on ISO Connect: https://connect.iso.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=27590861