The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
A Q&A with Henning Wuester on how UNOPS enables the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency
We spoke to the Director of ICAT on how UNOPS hosting services are empowering them to build trust and effectiveness in global climate action.
Tackling global challenges like the climate crisis requires swift, collaborative action. Initiatives need platforms that allow them to focus immediately on their core mission.
The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) aims to support developing countries in building transparency frameworks for effective climate action. Hosted by UNOPS, ICAT is driving this crucial work by providing countries with the tools and data needed for informed policy decisions.
Henning Wuester, Director of ICAT, shared his experience with the UNOPS hosted partnerships model and how it supports ICAT's mandate.
How does UNOPS help you deliver?
UNOPS provides ICAT with the framework that the United Nations rules and regulations offer, and administrative effectiveness and efficiency to advance the work. This is critical, and UNOPS is the only UN agency that engages in that manner, not interfering with the substantive mandate of ICAT, not bringing in other objectives and goals. Which is good both for our donors and for the partner countries that we work with who are pursuing their objectives in driving the climate action transparency work that ICAT supports.
How does the partnership between UNOPS and ICAT help deliver for communities around the world?
Through UNOPS we are able to directly engage with countries. We are able to conclude project agreements with ministries so that they can implement the work on the ground, close to where the action is required. We are able to help them engage national experts, build national expertise that can be retained in the country and help to advance climate objectives even beyond the lifetime of our projects.
We are working with intergovernmental organizations at the regional level to advance regional action, to build regional networks and, again, an expertise that remains in the region to advance the objectives. And we have the rigour of attracting state-of-the-art experts to build the tools and methodologies that are required for countries to effectively implement climate action through climate transparency.
UNOPS is the only UN agency that engages in that manner, not interfering with the substantive mandate of ICAT, not bringing in other objectives and goals.
Why is multilateral action important now more than ever?
The world is not on track in meeting its climate objectives. Climate change is an existential threat and needs to be addressed. And it can only be addressed if countries work together, if they collaborate in a multilateral framework. That is essential. Transparency is the glue that can keep countries together, that can fuel the action that is required. Transparency enables developing countries to take informed decisions about climate action.
What is required is transformational change in order to achieve climate objectives, and that is not a simple task. It needs to be planned well, it needs to be based on sound data and analysis. And especially, developing countries need to be satisfied that nobody in their countries is left behind. But we are also working with emerging economies like Brazil and South Africa, which are building frameworks to monitor that transformational climate action actually is just and does take care of all of society in their countries.
So, enabling developing countries to take effective climate action is the basis for a multilateral process that in the end can tackle this existential threat.
Dr. Henning Wuester
Dr. Henning Wuester is the Director of the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), where he leads the Initiative’s strategic direction, manages its secretariat and serves as its public representative. He brings experience in climate change and sustainable development policy to the role.
Prior to joining ICAT, Dr. Wuester oversaw work on knowledge, policy and finance at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and served as the Senior Manager of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Interim Secretariat. His background also includes key positions within the UN system, including Special Adviser to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and various roles at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Munich, where he began his career as an assistant professor.
