GEF-6 REQUEST FOR PROJECT ENDORSEMENT/APPROVAL PROJECT TYPE: Medium-sized Project TYPE OF TRUST FUND:Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency For more information about GEF, visit TheGEF.org

PART I: PROJECT INFORMATION

Project Title: Strengthening ’s Transparency Framework on GHG Inventories and Mitigation Country(ies): Argentina GEF Project ID:1 9955 GEF Agency(ies): UNEP GEF Agency Project ID: 01617 Other Executing Government Secretariat of Resubmission Date: June 6th, Partner(s): Environment and Sustainable 2019 Development GEF Focal Area (s): Climate Change Project Duration 48 (Months) Integrated Approach IAP-Cities IAP-Commodities IAP-Food Corporate Program: SGP Pilot Security Name of Parent Program [if applicable] Agency Fee ($) 189,981

A. FOCAL AREA STRATEGY FRAMEWORK AND OTHER PROGRAM STRATEGIES2 (in $) Focal Area Trust Focal Area Outcomes Objectives/Programs Fund GEF Project Co- Financing financing CBIT CBIT CBIT 1,999,800 350,000 Total project costs 1,999,800 350,000

B. PROJECT DESCRIPTION SUMMARY Project Objective: Argentina complies with the requirements of the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change Fin (in $) Project anc Trust Components/ ing Project Outcomes Project Outputs GEF Confirmed Fund Project Co- Programs Typ e3 Financing financing

1. National and 1.1 Argentina is able 1.1.1 Sectorial subnational GHG TA to elaborate and templates and CBIT 1,003,637 200,000 inventory System share consistent and consistency guidelines accurate national on data collection and

1 Project ID number remains the same as the assigned PIF number. 2 When completing Table A, refer to the excerpts on GEF 6 Results Frameworks for GETF, LDCF and SCCF and CBIT programming directions. 3 Financing type can be either investment or technical assistance.

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and subnational reporting are GHG inventories. developed and related trainings are provided for subnational level. 1.1.2 Country-specific emission factors, data activity and parameters are developed/ enhanced for at least two sectors (Energy and AFOLU4). 1.1.3 Expanded information sharing and knowledge management platform on national and subnational GHG inventory are improved and put in place. 1.1.4 Peer exchange activities for experience sharing and local capacity building on GHG Inventory are conducted. 2.1.1 Sectorial templates and 2.1 Stakeholders guidelines on within the National mitigation action Climate Change tracking are developed 2. Domestic Cabinet provide and and related trainings tracking of exchange are provided. mitigation actions TA information for CBIT 228,557 100,000 2.1.2 Sectorial and support domestic tracking of templates and received mitigation actions and support guidelines on tracking received. of support received are developed and related trainings are provided.

3.1 Stakeholders 3.1.1 Medium term within the National models to evaluate the 3. Medium and Climate Change interactions between long-term TA CBIT 585,806 0 Cabinet use sectorial mitigation projections consistent GHG actions are developed emissions modeling, (2020/2025/2030). economy wide

4 Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU)

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scenarios, and 3.1.2 Economy-wide analysis of long-term modeling interactions for inputs and sensitivity climate policy analysis are developed decision making. (2030/2040/2050).

3.1.3 Peer exchange activities for experience sharing and local capacity building on Long-Term Strategies are conducted. Subtotal 1,818,000 300,000 Project Management Cost (PMC)5 CBIT 181,800 50,000 Total project costs 1,999,800 350,000

C. CONFIRMED SOURCES OF CO-FINANCING FOR THE PROJECT BY NAME AND BY TYPE Please include evidence for co-financing for the project with this form. Sources of Type of Name of Co-financier Amount ($) Co-financing Cofinancing Recipient Government National Department of Climate Change In-kind 350,000 Total Co-financing 350,000

D. TRUST FUND RESOURCES REQUESTED BY AGENCY(IES), COUNTRY(IES), FOCAL AREA AND THE PROGRAMMING OF FUNDS (in $) Country GEF GEF Trust Programming of Agency Focal Area Total Agency Fund Name/Glob Funds Project Fee(*) al (c)=(a)+(b) Financing (b) (a) UNEP CBIT Argentina Climate Change (select as applicable) 1,999,800 189,981 2,189,781 Total Grant Resources 1,999,800 189,981 2,189,781 (*) Refer to the Fee Policy for GEF Partner Agencies

E. PROJECT’S TARGET CONTRIBUTIONS TO GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS5

5 For GEF Project Financing up to $2 million, PMC could be up to10% of the subtotal; above $2 million, PMC could be up to 5% of the subtotal. PMC should be charged proportionately to focal areas based on focal area project financing amount in Table D below.

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Update the relevant sub-indicator values for this project using the methodologies indicated in the Core Indicator Worksheet (as used in GEF 7 Endorsement template – Annex E) and aggregating them in the table below. Progress in programming against these targets is updated at mid-term evaluation and at terminal evaluation. Achieved targets will be aggregated and reported any time during the replenishment period. There is no need to complete this table for climate adaptation projects financed solely through LDCF and SCCCF. Project Core Indicators Expected at CEO Endorsement 1 Terrestrial protected areas created or under improved management for conservation and sustainable use (Hectares) 2 Marine protected areas created or under improved management for conservation and sustainable use (Hectares) 3 Area of land restored (Hectares) 4 Area of landscapes under improved practices (excluding protected areas)(Hectares) 5 Area of marine habitat under improved practices (excluding protected areas) (Hectares) Total area under improved management (Hectares) 6 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigated (metric tons of CO2e) 7 Number of shared water (fresh or marine) under new or improved cooperative management 8 Globally over-exploited marine fisheries moved to more sustainable levels (metric tons) 9 Reduction, disposal/destruction, phase out, elimination and avoidance of chemicals of global concern and their waste in the environment and in processes, materials and products (metric tons of toxic chemicals reduced) 10 Reduction, avoidance of emissions of POPs to air from point and non-point sources (grams of toxic equivalent gTEQ) 11 Number of direct beneficiaries disaggregated by gender as co-benefit of GEF 300 (150 women, 150 investment men)

F. PROJECT TAXONOMY Please update the table below for the taxonomic information provided at PIF stage. Use the GEF Taxonomy Worksheet provided in Annex F to find the most relevant keywords/topics/themes that best describe the project. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Influencing Transform policy and regulatory environments (multiple selection) (multiple selection) Models Strengthen institutional capacity/decision-making Stakeholders Private sector (multiple selection) (multiple selection) Civil society Capacity, Knowledge Generation and Exchange (multiple selection) (multiple selection) Knowledge and

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Research Gender Gender mainstreaming (multiple selection) (multiple selection) Equality Focal United Nations Framework on Climate Change Capacity Building (multiple selection) Area/Theme Initiative for Transparency Rio Markers Climate Change Mitigation 1 Climate Change Adaptation 1

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II: PROJECT JUSTIFICATION A.0. Describe any changes in alignment with the project design with the original PIF No major changes have been made regarding logical framework or co-finance amounts.

Some changes have been made in Outputs from the original PIF. This is mainly because some activities were undertaken directly by the in the last months with the support of projects already in operation in the country. With the help of the mentioned projects, the country was able to implement these improvements earlier than expected. Some of the changes in the design of the activities are as follows:

 The elimination of the outputs 1.1.2 Institutional arrangements for sectorial inventories are formalized, and 2.1.1 Institutional arrangements for domestic tracking of mitigation actions and support received are formalized through the National Climate Change Cabinet.  The rephrasing for clarification purposes of outputs: 1.1.4; 2.1.2 and 3.1.2.

PIF Output Current Output 1.1.1 Sectorial templates and consistency guidelines 1.1.1 Sectorial templates and consistency guidelines on data collection and reporting are developed and on data collection and reporting are developed and related trainings are provided. related trainings are provided for subnational level. 1.1.5 Peer exchange activities for experience sharing 1.1.4 Peer exchange activities for experience sharing are implemented. and local capacity building on GHG inventory are conducted. 2.1.2 Sectorial templates/software and guidelines on 2.1.1 Sectorial templates and guidelines on mitigation mitigation actions and support received tracking are actions tracking are developed and related trainings developed and related trainings are provided. are provided. 2.1.2 Sectorial templates and guidelines on tracking of support received are developed and related trainings are provided. 3.1.2 Economy-wide long-term modeling and 3.1.2 Economy-wide long-term modeling inputs and scenarios are developed (2030/2040/2050). sensitivity analysis are developed (2030/2040/2050).

 The addition of output 3.1.3 Peer exchange activities for experience sharing and local capacity building on Long-Term Strategy are conducted. These modifications are the result of some improvements in Argentina’s climate reporting capacity needs. For instance, thanks to the Low Emission Capacity Building (LECB) project implemented by UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the 3rd Biennial Update Report (BUR), the institutional arrangements for both the GHG inventory and the Mitigation Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system have been developed and put in place. Furthermore, the 3rd Biennial Update Report (BUR) to be presented in 2019 will be the first one to be developed in a semi-decentralized manner in close collaboration with Energy and Agriculture Government areas. Regarding MRV, by the end of 2018, the government will have available in the online platform the first set of indicators on the progress of selected actions from Energy. All these results will be considered as inputs for the development of this CBIT project.

Some of the changes and clarifications were made to minimize the overlapping between different projects in the country. The Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Support project with UNDP, which Argentina is also preparing will continue the National Climate Change Cabinet’s work by supporting the organization of the different interministerial roundtables currently in operation in Argentina. Also, this new UNDP project plans to help the country to develop and model the Long-Term Strategy (LTS), and with this the CBIT project will

6 collaborate with the elaboration of relevant analysis and inputs that will facilitate and allow the NDC Support project to model Argentina’s LTS by 2020.

The mentioned changes in the Outputs led to a slight change in the budget allocation. Indeed, the scope of Component 1 was reduced in favor of Components 2 and 3. The table below indicates the budget changes:

Indicated at the PIF stage Current budget Component 1 USD 1,057,100 USD 1,003,637 Component 2 USD 208,400 USD 228,557 Component 3 USD 552,500 USD 585,806

A.1. Project Description. Elaborate on: 1) Global environmental and/or adaptation problems, root causes and barriers that need to be addressed The purpose of the Paris Agreement (PA), as expressed in its article 2, is to limit “the increase of global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. In order to achieve this objective, all member-parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), have to prepare, communicate and undertake ambitious efforts in the form of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). Article 13th of the PA creates an enhanced transparency framework in order to build mutual trust and confidence to provide clarity in understanding climate change global action.

Argentina, in particular, is exposed to numerous climate change risks and impacts due to the extremely large extension of its territory (2,780,400 km²) which implies a heterogeneous set of ecosystems, social and urban systems. Its vast territory allows to develop a rich agricultural and livestock activity that supplies both the local and the international market. The vulnerability of the country regarding climate change becomes highly relevant because of the prominence of the agricultural activity which guarantees the economic development of the country and, foremost, plays a fundamental role on the supply of food on a global scale (historically named “The Barn of the World”).

The intensification of extreme climate events such as more intense and frequent rainfalls has produced floods and has even provoked landslides. In other regions, there has been an extension of the periods without rain which produces severe droughts and the increase of the length of the heat waves. All these phenomena have widened the year-to-year variability of production, compromising the stability of the productive system, which is highly dependent on agricultural production; therefore, there has been a huge negative impact, both economic and social.

Considering this, and especially after the new government took power in 2015, climate change has taken a new place in public policy through a strategic approach, considering the local and global needs to tackle one of the major challenges humanity faces. In this sense, Argentina recognizes the need to increase the global ambition so as to fulfill the objective of the PA, and knows that within Latin America, the country contributes with an important share of the regional emissions (3rd place).

In order to adequately plan, measure, and implement Argentina´s mitigation actions it is highly relevant to strengthen human, technical and institutional capacities so as to overcome some of the main gaps the country faces, such as: the need to strengthen the National Greenhouse Gases (GHG) inventory system in order to make the data gathering more dynamic and less time-consuming, the lack of base data that allows to report in a more complete and transparent way, or the lack of specific technical capacities of the focal points within the National Cabinet of Climate Change (GNCC, in Spanish) and the subnational governments. These gaps difficult

7 the distribution of responsibilities among different actors involved and overload the technicians from the National Climate Change Directorate (NCCD) of the Secretariat of Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

2) The baseline scenario or any associated baseline projects  Argentina´s strong commitment towards climate change With the new government in place, the issue of climate change took a new dimension through a strategic approach, with strong political support and commitment to meet the global goals, by creating the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (former Secretariat of Environment). Within this Ministry, the Secretariat of Climate Change and Sustainable Development supports the Ministry with the implementation of Environmental policy, elaborating and updating the diagnosis of the environmental and climate change national situation. However, recently in 2018, due to an extended political and economic crisis, several ministries were eliminated, including the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, which returned to its previous Government Secretariat status.

In line with the national priorities, in 2016 Argentina has established an inter-ministerial cabinet, the GNCC, which coordinates all climate change related actions proposed and implemented by the most relevant governmental policy and enforcement authorities linked to climate change. The objective of the GNCC is to design consistent and agreed public policies with a strategical approach to reduce GHG emissions and generate coordinated answers to climate change impacts. The GNCC scheme is structured around four levels of coordination: 1) Policy instance (Ministries or National Government Secretariats), 2) Technical instance (focal point within the governmental areas), 3) Local states (Provinces through the Federal Council of Environment (COFEMA, in Spanish), and 4) “Extended roundtables” (Non-Governmental Organizations, unions, private, academic and scientific sectors and municipalities).

Figure 1: National Cabinet of Climate Change Structure

Due to this participative process, Argentina was the first country in the region to present a revised NDC in 2016, increasing its ambition before the five-year period established in the PA. Such review was based on article 4, paragraph 11, of the PA about increasing the level of ambition and providing more clarity, transparency and understanding to the contribution, according to decision 1/CP.21, paragraph 27.

The revision of the NDC is just the first step of a long-term climate change roadmap, which includes the following future milestones:

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o Sectorial National Plans for Mitigation and Adaptation Actions (2017/2019) o National Climate Change Response Plan (2019) o National Act on Climate Change (2019) o Implementation (2020/30) o Further increase of ambition (2020/2050) including the development of an LTS.

Figure 2: Argentina’s National Determined Contribution (Roadmap)

Argentina ratified the Paris Agreement on September 21st of 2016 and it is strongly committed to the global effort to cope with this issue, including the compliance of the Enhanced Transparency Framework of article 13th. • Reporting to the UNFCCC Argentina has submitted three National Communications (NC) to the UNFCCC. The First NC was published on 25 July 1997, with an unofficial revision on October 1999; the second was submitted on March 7, 2008 (which added the inventory of the year 2000), and the third NC was presented on December 9, 2015, including the inventory of the year 2012. In addition, Argentina has presented its first BUR to the UNFCCC in December 9, 2015 with data regarding the Greenhouse Gas Inventory for 2010. Moreover, on August 2017, the country presented its second BUR containing the total GHG emissions for the year 2014 and an updated version for whole time series 1990-2014 using Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 guidelines. Lastly, during 2018, the country has been working in the 3rd BUR, which will include the total GHG emissions for the year 2016 and it is planned to be submitted to the UNFCCC during 2019.

During 2016, the International Consultation and Analysis (ICA) process for the first BUR of Argentina was conducted. This process started with a technical analysis going from the 29th February to the 4th of March 2016, in Bonn, performed by a team of UNFCCC technical experts. A series of exchanges and consultations were made, apart from observations and comments about the report submitted. The synthesis report was finalized on 16th September 2016, right after Argentina participated in the "Exchange of Opinions for Facilitation Purposes" workshop (Facilitative Sharing of Views (FSV)), held in Marrakesh, during the Conference of the Parties (COP) 22. On that occasion, the results and the process of Argentina´s first BUR were presented and the questions, raised by the Parties, were answered, with a clear commitment of analyzing how to address the gaps identified by the ICA process. The country has corrected many of them and included many of the recommendations made by the ICA during the development of the second BUR. Moreover, key elements and gaps (more detail will be provided in the next section) raised in