This blog was written by Braoin MacLauchlan and Matteo Bizzotto, with contributions by Einav Grinberg, Laura Noriega, Carla Marino, Maryke van Staden (ICEI World Secretariat) and George Bush (CDP). 

A growing sense of urgency, propelled by the IPCC reports, COP26 discussions, and the need for real impact by 2030 mean climate policies have never been higher on the agenda. Climate reporting gives local and regional governments control to track, manage, and attain their climate goals. The good news is, it also attracts investment.

Bonn, in the heart of Germany, has pledged to completely switch to electric buses by 2030. The City of Des Moines, USA, commits to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. Tshwane, South Africa, has signed on to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Declaration as part of a bid to be climate neutral by 2050. These are examples of single action in individual cities, but the reality is that hundreds of actions across thousands of cities are underway. Across the globe, local leaders are committing to reduce emissions and adapt to a changing climate.

Many more commitments are desperately needed. But moving from commitments to an actual plan, transforming goals into actions, is critical to meet the actual global climate targets. Many local and regional governments are determined to act, but they struggle to implement a coherent and systematic framework to track the effectiveness of their climate measures. Fewer still have the ability to access the necessary data to assess their baseline and progress from there – especially for their territory’s Climate Risk & Vulnerability Assessments, and Greenhouse Gas Inventories.

From another angle, there is huge demand to compare their measures and progress with fellow subnational territories and to gauge how they are contributing to national and international efforts.

A lack of climate ambition at the subnational level is not the problem. Translating that ambition into science-based action is. That’s where climate reporting can help.

Most subnational governments already gather their environmental data, often a mandatory effort defined by national government. Many are also voluntarily reporting their climate data, making that data publicly accessible to others, allowing for transparency, effective goal tracking, and coordinated climate action.