Towards Enhanced Transparency in Non-Annex 1 Countries? Challenges and Options for Measurement and Reporting in Georgia

Abstract

This paper explores what the main challenges are for Georgia and other non-Annex 1 countries to meet the requirements under the Paris Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework, and discusses what the options are for overcoming these challenges. The paper draws on primary data from Georgia’s energy sector and on case-based literature from various non-Annex 1 countries. The literature points to challenges such as insufficient budgets, low capacity, and inadequate institutional set-ups, and proposes increased financial and technical support and standardized guidelines for measurement and reporting as best options. Cases from South Caucasus and Georgia are rare. We therefore examine how Georgia’s current system for Measurement and Reporting is organized, and what the main technical-administrative challenges are for the sector to meet the transparency requirements as seen from key stakeholders’ and implementers’ perspectives. In addition to challenges similar to those identified in the literature, we find that the most fundamental challenge is a lack of domestic political motivation and support. The perceived complexity of the transparency requirements is a major deterrent in combination with the limited capacity to deal with it. We therefore focus our discussion on options for how to foster domestic political support, and argue that emphasizing existing and new co-benefits, including increasingly linking Measurement and Reporting to the carbon market, could be a way forward. Given the urgency of reducing emissions, we find that efforts towards reducing the complexity of the requirements, activities and tools for Measurement and Reporting (M&R) could help adapt the Enhanced Transparency Framework to the actual situation of non-Annex 1 countries and make Measurement and Reporting more worthwhile for these countries.