The first results of ClimateScanner published at COP29

18.11.2024

Last week, on 14 November at COP29 in Baku, the first round of results of the ClimateScanner were published. 

The results were presented at a side event organized in collaboration with the Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan and Federal Court of Accounts of Brazil. The session was framed around the first round of assessments from 61 SAIs on governance, public policies and climate finance in their countries. 

The event drew a lot of interest, and it was a full house at the Azerbaijan Pavilion! We were honored to have the President of COP29, Mr Mukhtar Babayev, to give his remarks at the event and recognise the role of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) in striving towards better climate governance. Opening remarks were also delivered by the Chairman of the Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan Vugar Gulmammadov, Vice President of the Federal Court of Accounts of Brazil Minister Vital do Rogo , Member of the European Court of Auditors Klaus-Heiner Lehne. 

After the opening remarks, Hugo Chudyson from SAI Brazil presented the first results of ClimateScanner. One of the key findings was that most national governments cannot track how much they spend on climate action. Following the results, Judite Ali from SAI Mozambique shared their national ClimateScanner story of how the tool has been used. The presentations were followed by a panel with Elsa Da Costa from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Ramona Bortnowschi from the European Court of Auditors and Gurveen Sidhu from SAI India. The panel delivered insights to how the ClimateScanner has supported the understanding on governments' work on climate action by creating a better overview, in addition to the benefits and challenges of the tool. These benefits and challenges include a structured framework and possibilities to identify future audit topics, while lacking the ability to assess the effectiveness of policies.

In the final part of the event, Camilla Fredriksen from the INTOSAI Development Initiative called for more engagement with stakeholders like parliaments and donors to strengthen the impact of the results. The final closing comment was delivered by Reina Otsuka from the United Nations Development Programme, a key enabler of the ClimateScanner, mentioning anticipating future audit work facilitated by the ClimateScanner.

As for the message to the COP29 negotiations, the common message was: ”Together we are better”, as was stressed by Hugo Chudyson.

Take a look at what the event looked like onsite in Baku! COP29 Climate Scanner Side Event

COP29 is organized from 11 to 22 November in Baku, Azerbaijan.