The World Bank reports that 16 Latin American countries want to test the FLINT with the most frequently cited reason being the possibility to automate the processing of data. The list includes Argentina, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The 16 countries participated in the “Open-Source Tools and Collaborative Platforms to Support National Greenhouse Gas Inventories in the AFOLU Sector” workshop held in Guadalajara, Mexico from October 29 to November 1, 2018. It was a collaboration between the World Bank, CONAFOR, AMEXCID, USAID, U.S. Forest Service and SilvaCarbon.
The workshop identified the Full Lands Integration Tool (FLINT) maintained by moja global as a suitable open-source collaborative technological solutions for the AFOLU sector greenhouse gas inventories (GHGi). The countries need a tool accurate enough to obtain payments for results under The Carbon Fund of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). The World Bank’s Facility Management Team needs a tool that can replicate the results reported to verify the emission reductions before payments can be made.
Moja global was introduced to the participants at the beginning of the workshop. The World Bank report points out that moja global’s main work is to support collaboration and ensure that countries are happy to make contributions to our open-source organization. The latter ensures that software responds to the needs on the work floor.
The World Bank report indicates that Latin American countries mainly use MRV systems to meet international reporting obligations, which include biennial update reports and national communications. Additionally, the report indicates that countries seem to be shifting from reporting to planning and they hope to have upgraded their MRV systems in two year’s time. This will give resources to make a contribution to the planning of climate-related projects within the countries and to report to international partners.
The report also details each of the eight steps a country would go through in the process of designing an MRV system:
- Assessing what policymakers need to make informed decisions
- Defining the capabilities an MRV system needs to answer policy questions
- Identifying how different types of data can be combined with modules to build the necessary MRV capability
- Identifying the generic data to be used as a placeholder until more specific data are available
- Using a framework to build a first version of the MRV system
- Continue using the framework through regular cycles
- Organizing MRV operations as a continuous operational cycle
- Organizing MRV improvement using an agile approach that starts with a minimum viable product as illustrated in the image.
The report concludes that all participants want to test the FLINT in their countries with the most frequently cited reason being the possibility to automate the processing of data. Other reasons include the possibility to adjust the system to country-specific circumstances that results in higher accuracy, the spatially explicit processing of data that allows for the identification of trends and drivers and the possibility to project emissions into the future, which assists with policy development.
Different levels of support are needed by each country to enable them to install the FLINT. The FLINT requires some scientific and computer knowledge to understand the code and various modules. Support can involve running the FLINT with the support of international experts, allowing the country team to learn by doing or having a team of international experts run the FLINT for the country, i.e. FLINTpro, therefore allowing the country team to focus on operating the system rather than on building it.
Read the full report here.
