3 June 2014: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the Network on Environment and Development Co-operation (ENVIRONET) and the Working Party on Development Finance Statistics (WP-STAT) met to examine progress on improving finance reporting under the Rio Conventions.

The Joint Task Team on the Rio Markers held its Experts’ meeting on 3 June 2014. The OECD Rio markers are intended to assist member countries in completing their National Communications to the Rio Conventions, namely the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Participants reviewed: improvements in reporting to OECD DAC on environment-related official development assistance (ODA); initial proposals for better Rio marker definitions; the status of reporting, identification and measurement of green multilateral finance within the DAC statistical system; proposals for improved communication, user access and outreach on Rio marker data; and analysis of the potential use of Rio marker data to report quantitatively under the Rio Conventions.

The first agenda item was addressed with presentations on the status of reporting of ODA and Other Official Flows (OOF) to OECD DAC and on preliminary findings of an EC study on the application of the Rio markers. On the second agenda item, the Task Team considered specific proposed adjustments to the wording of the Mitigation and Adaptation markers. A final proposal for these changes will be prepared for the Third Experts’ Meeting.

The meeting then turned to the issue of reconciling environment-related finance flows from multilateral development banks (MDBs) with DAC statistics. After an overview of the methodology used and DAC’s collaboration with MDBs, attendees heard from the World Bank on similarities and differences between the World Bank and Rio marker methodologies for estimating climate finance flows.

A presentation on efforts to make accessing Rio marker data online a user-friendly process gave a series of visuals on the updated website and user interface. Lastly, participants were presented an overview of how Rio marker data are being used to report under the Rio Conventions, with a spotlight on the UNCCD. At the end of the session, Task Team members explored the options and basis for creating a harmonized methodology for quantitative reporting under all three Conventions.

ENVIRONET is a network of multilateral institutions and development agencies from member countries of OECD DAC. WP-STAT is also a subsidiary body of OECD DAC. [Meeting Webpage] [Meeting Agenda] [IISD RS Story on First Experts’ Meeting] [DAC ENVIRONET Webpage] [OECD Aid Statistics Webpage]