Resources & FAQs

The Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP) is an initiative developed by the NDC Partnership, designed to deliver targeted, fast-track support to achieve two overarching objectives:

1. Enhance countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs), including by raising ambition, as part of the Paris Agreement’s NDC update process; and
2. Fast-track implementation of NDCs, including by providing in-country technical expertise and capacity building.

In addition, CAEP had a third objective of supporting the delivery of and follow-up on transformational initiatives for the United Nations Secretary-General’s 2019 Climate Action Summit. Under this objective, four developing country co-leads in the thematic coalitions of the Summit received support in the form of additional local (embedded) expert capacity – either in NY or in capital. The countries and respective thematic strands are: Ethiopia – Energy Transition; Jamaica – Climate Finance & Carbon Pricing; Kenya – Infrastructure, Cities & Local Action; and RMI – Youth & Public Mobilization.

The CAEP delivers support to countries through existing support programs from institutional and associate members and through a dedicated Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) that deploys financing when existing support is not enough to meet countries’ needs.  All developing countries members of the Partnership were invited to request support through CAEP, and all institutional and associate members were invited to respond, including through their own resources or by applying to access financing from the TAF.

Implementation of CAEP support is currently underway in 63 countries. Further information on CAEP’s results can be found here.

The Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) is a dedicated source of financing for CAEP activities when existing support is not enough to meet countries’ needs. All institutional and associate members of the NDC Partnership were eligible to apply for funding through the TAF.

The TAF receives contributions from multiple development partners, including Germany (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)), Denmark (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Netherlands (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Inclusive Green Growth Department), Norway (Royal Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Sweden (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Agenda Department), and the UK (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom). In addition, Germany through the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) is supporting CAEP directly through a contribution to the Support Unit.

The NDC Partnership works with its more than 180 members, including developed and developing countries as well as major international institutions and non-state actors, to leverage their resources and expertise to provide countries with the tools they need to implement their NDCs and combat climate change.

As countries prepare new NDCs for presentation by the end of 2020 and into 2021, the NDC Partnership is encouraging them to not only enhance the quality and increase the ambition of their climate actions, but also to do so in a way that is implementable and realistic.

By creating a limited-time initiative available to countries as they update their NDCs, the NDC Partnership furthers its goals by allowing countries to act more ambitiously as they prepare and implement their NDCs. This leads to better strategies for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and building resiliency against the negative effects of a changing climate.

The objectives of the UN Secretary General’s 2019 Climate Action Summit were to raise national ambition through concrete, realistic plans; prompt transformational changes needed to support the implementation of these plans; and generate political momentum through enhanced social and political drivers as well as youth and public engagement. (Information Note)

In an opinion piece published in The Guardian, Secretary General António Guterres wrote, “Thankfully, we have the Paris Agreement – a visionary, viable, forward-looking policy framework that sets out exactly what needs to be done to stop climate disruption and reverse its impact. But the agreement itself is meaningless without ambitious action.” The CAEP was designed to support countries and provide them with a vehicle to deliver the increased ambition outlined in the Summit’s objectives and in advance of the 2020 NDC revision process.

All institutional and associate members of the NDC Partnership were invited to support countries through CAEP with their own resources or by applying for funding from the Technical Assistance Fund (TAF). Country members were also invited to respond through their development agencies, which could be authorized to access TAF funding. In addition, CAEP has also drawn in the support of non-members, though these organizations were not eligible to access TAF.

Implementation of the CAEP is country-driven. All developing member countries were invited to apply if they met the eligibility criteria. All eligible requests for funding were circulated to Partnership members, who were encouraged to support countries through the CAEP either with their own resources or by applying for funding through the Technical Assistance Fund.

The Support Unit manages the implementation of the CAEP, based on the received guidance from the NDC Partnership Steering Committee. The Support Unit:

• Organizes the calls for requests for support
• Screens requests submitted by countries to determine eligibility
• Circulates eligible requests among Partnership members
• Consolidates all responses received
• Develops country-specific Terms of Reference with deliverables as well as roles and responsibilities, and secures approval with governments
• Consolidates progress updates, shares lessons learned and prepares reports
• The Steering Committee oversaw the launch of the CAEP, and reviews implementation and progress, and takes corrective actions when necessary.

With regards to the management of the Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) under CAEP, the World Resources Institute (WRI) hosts the TAF and therefore manages contracting, while the Support Unit is responsible for programmatic implementation. In that capacity, WRI:

• Receives and manages TAF funds from donors
• Receives sub grant, subcontract, and consultant requests from the Support Unit
• Conducts compliance reviews of Support Unit requests and subsequent issuance of grants, contracts, or consultant agreements
• Issuances related payments
• Monitors partner financial performance
• Audits coordination

The CAEP delivers support to countries through existing support programs from institutional and associate members and through a dedicated Technical Assistance Fund (TAF) that deploys financing when existing support is not enough to meet countries’ needs.

The TAF is a pooled funding mechanism that receives contributions from multiple development partners, including Germany (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)), Denmark (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Netherlands (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Inclusive Green Growth Department), Norway (Royal Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Sweden (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Agenda Department), and the UK (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom). In addition, Germany through the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) is supporting CAEP directly through a contribution to the Support Unit.

Members that can quickly deploy technical and financial support were given the first option to respond to country requests. Remaining gaps in support were then covered by members of the Partnership with the required expertise but without available resources, by accessing the TAF.

The Support Unit screened applications for support based on four criteria, which are the minimum criteria that requesting member countries were expected to adhere to:

• Ambition Framing: The request must have a clear explanation of how the countries will use the support to update their NDCs to raise ambition, enhance, or implement them.
• Whole of Government: The request must be a country-driven process, with high-level commitment and involvement of all relevant ministries, preferably including the Ministries of Finance and/or Planning alongside NDC Partnership Focal Points.
• Whole of Society: The request must commit to engaging the whole of society in the process, with a brief explanation of how this will occur, including mainstreaming gender equality and involving relevant stakeholders from civil society, the private sector, sub-national governments, and academia.
• Links with National Plans: The request must include an explanation of how direct linkages with the country’s national planning and budgeting processes will be established, as well as how the request will link with development strategies and sustainable development goals.

All eligible applications were shared with NDC Partnership members for their response.

The NDC Partnership Support Unit consolidated responses from implementing partners to determine what support was being offered in response to requests by each country, including with resources from the TAF. Where more than one implementing partner expressed interest in providing support for a specific action, a coordination call was held among interested implementing partners and the relevant governments to decide the division of labor. Where multiple TAF resource requests were made, the responses were prioritized according to the TAF eligibility criteria and a coordination call will be organized if necessary.

Countries and implementing partners track progress, and the NDC Partnership Support Unit consolidates and prepares regular reports on the CAEP’s overall progress. This includes quarterly country progress reports and bi-annual progress reports for the Partnership’s Steering Committee.

The objective of CAEP is to enable countries to submit enhanced and more ambitious NDCs by 2020 and into 2021. CAEP support is already underway and is expected to be finalized as countries submit their updated NDCs. Support being provided through the TAF will extend until June 2021 at the latest.

All completed country TORs can be found here.