8 November 2022 | The Secretariat of the Global Covenant of Mayors Southeast Asia (GCoM SEA) recently collaborated with ICLEI Southeast Asia in hosting a webinar on the CDP-ICLEI Track, the world’s leading climate progress accountability mechanism for cities. The webinar, which was held virtually on 8 November 2022, provided valuable information and guidance to cities on how to effectively report their climate action to the platform.
Victorino Aquitania, the Regional Director of the ICLEI Southeast Asia Secretariat, delivered the opening remarks at the webinar. He emphasised the importance of reporting for GCoM and Cities Race to Zero (CRtZ) cities and explained that CDP and ICLEI have a unified reporting platform accessible to participating cities.
On behalf of the GCoM SEA Secretariat hosted by UCLG ASPAC, Rendy Primrizqi delivered the first presentation about GCoM SEA and its activities at the webinar. UCLG ASPAC has been the host of the GCoM SEA Secretariat since 2018, facilitating potential signatories to join the GCoM and supporting existing signatories in their participation in knowledge-sharing and capacity-building activities. In his presentation, he Rendy explained the signatory journey from commitment to implementation.
He also added emphasised the importance of reporting for signatories, as it supports cities and local governments in understanding their progress in implementing their climate action plans. It helps national governments to have updated and transparent data to be reported as part of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and promotes the availability of consolidated data globally.
The second presentation was given by Ricardo Marfiga, Jr. of the ICLEI SEA Southeast Asia Secretariat. He provided an overview of the three approaches used to streamline the 2022 questionnaire released by CDP and ICLEI: reduction, pathways, and design. The reduction approach involved reducing the number of questions by over 60% from previous years to decrease reduce reporting time efforts for cities. The pathways approach focused on the most important data points for city climate action, including emissions reduction and resilience. The design approach utilised several questions’ design methods, such as importing data and reducing open-ended questions, to facilitate further streamlining of the questionnaire. These approaches allowed the questionnaire to be streamlined and made it easier for cities to report on their climate action.
Happy Tiara of the ICLEI Indonesia Office provided a detailed tutorial on how to access the 2022 CDP-ICLEI Track questionnaire. She said that the questionnaire is aligned with the GCoM Common Reporting Framework (CRF), which means that the cities that report to the CDP-ICLEI Track will be eligible to receive badges from the GCoM. This is an important recognition for cities that are committed to addressing climate change and working towards the global goal of halving emissions by 2030. By following the steps outlined in the tutorial, cities can easily and efficiently complete the questionnaire and receive the GCoM badges.
Overall, the webinar was a valuable resource for cities in Southeast Asia to learn more about the CDP-ICLEI Track and how to effectively report their climate action. By participating in the webinar and completing the questionnaire, cities can demonstrate their commitment to addressing climate change and contribute to the global effort to halve emissions by 2030.
—
Written by: Naura Hasna Farhatani
Reviewed by: Rona Ikram Putri
