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Regional workshop on

Finalising Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) through cross-learning under the UNFCCC–ICIMOD collaboration and the HKH Regional Climate Action Transparency Hub (HKH-RCATH)

Venue

ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal

Date & Time

01 September 2026 to 03 September 2026

Background

Countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region are transitioning to the full implementation of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement. Experiences shared during the Regional Stakeholder Consultation Workshop in Paro (December 2025) highlighted common challenges, including limited institutionalised technical capacity and fragmented data systems for the preparation of national Green House Gas (GHG) inventories. The HKH Regional Climate Action Transparency Hub, established under the UNFCCC-ICIMOD Memorandum of Understanding, serves as a regional platform for sustainable capacity-building, among other things, to improve reporting under the ETF of the Paris Agreement.

As its initial activity, the Hub will organise a regional workshop focused on understanding learnings from BTR, challenges faced in finalisation of BTR 2 and capacity-needs and priorities moving ahead paving way for capacity needs and peer to peer learning for 2027 and beyond.

Objective

The objective of the workshop is to facilitate the preparation of national GHG inventory as a part of BTR 2 by addressing common challenges through peer exchange and identifying areas of improvement and capacity-building needs and exploring solutions to address them collectively.

The workshop will strengthen regional peer learning on GHG inventory and BTR preparation through exchange of experiences, challenges, and good practices. It will also contribute to building a regional pool of practitioners connected to HKH ETF Hub. The insights and output generated will directly inform the design of a future, regionally tailored course, ensuring more relevant and applied capacity building aligned with identified needs.

Target participants

The workshop will gather the national BTR teams, GHG inventory compilers and sectoral experts (energy, IPPU, AFOLU, waste) from the respective national institutions in charge of the development and management of national GHG inventories in HKH countries.

The final structure of the training will be adapted to the number and interest of participants.

Approach

Combination of short presentations, discussions, and exercises;

The exercises will be designed to address common issues in BTR preparations, national GHG inventories, including prioritising issues, planning inventory improvements, and addressing missing sub-sectors/categories and incomplete time series.

DAY 1 – Scene Setting and Perspectives
Time Session & Details
9:00 – 9:30
Opening Session
  • Welcome remarks (UNFCCC, ICIMOD, IPCC TFI)
  • Overview of the workshop, objectives, who is in the room (UNFCCC, ICIMOD)
9:30 – 11:00
Setting the Scene
  • GHG reporting requirements under the ETF of the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC)
  • Overview of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, the IPCC Inventory Software, and the IPCC Emission Factor Database (IPCC TFI)
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee / Tea Break
11:30 – 13:00
Institutional Arrangements & Submissions
  • Institutional arrangements for the national GHG inventories (UNFCCC)
  • Overview of country submissions to the UNFCCC (UNFCCC)
  • General observations of country submissions from BTR1 (IPCC TFI)
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break
14:30 – 17:00
Group Activity: Sharing Country Experiences

(Focused on challenges faced during the BTR/ETF process)

  • Short presentation of country experiences (Participants)
  • Group discussion on experiences and common challenges (Participants)
DAY 2 – Challenges
Time Session & Details
9:00 – 11:00
GHG Inventory Improvement
  • Quick overview of inventory by the participating countries
  • Country presentations of inventory focusing on main challenges
  • Improving Inventories: Reflections on feedback from country experiences
  • Improving inventories: Case studies and approaches (IPCC TFI)
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee / Tea Break
11:30 – 13:00
Working with Available Data
  • How to address the challenge of data availability? (IPCC TFI)
  • Data sources, data management (IPCC TFI)
  • Group Discussion: Country perspectives on data availability, managing and accessing databases, data splicing (Country representatives & IPCC TFI)
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break
14:30 – 17:00
IPCC Guidelines & Inventory Tools in Compiling BTRs/ETF Reporting
  • RMC Remarks: Country experiences of using inventory tools
  • Improvements: How guidelines and tools can be further developed/tailored to specific needs
  • Quick demonstration of IPCC Inventory Software and Emission Factor Database tailored to address specific challenges (IPCC TFI)
DAY 3 – Solutions
Time Session & Details
9:00 – 11:00
Exploring Solutions & Capacity-Building Needs (Part 1)
  • Stocktake of areas of improvement and capacity-building needs (undertaken by participants in advance)
  • Refining stocktake results and prioritization
  • Report on the revised stocktake and prioritization
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee / Tea Break
11:30 – 12:45
Exploring Solutions & Capacity-Building Needs (Part 2)
  • Identifying common areas of improvement and capacity-building needs in the region
  • Exploring innovative solutions that can be addressed at the regional level
12:45 – 13:45 Lunch Break
13:45 – 14:30
Presentation of Work Plan
  • Presentation of work plan based on exercise on exploring solutions (ICIMOD)
14:30 – 16:30
Plenary Discussion
  • Discussion on draft work programme of the HKH ETF Hub and integration of the work plan into the work programme
16:30 – 17:00
Closing Session
  • Reflections (Participants)
  • Next steps (UNFCCC/ICIMOD)
  • Closing remarks (UNFCCC, ICIMOD)

Agenda

Agenda_HKH Regional Workshop_BTR