“Development of a Measureable, Reportable, and Verifiable (MRV) System for Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in Indonesia”[1]

Umi Hanik, SE, ME[2]

1.     Background

In 2009, the President of the Republic of Indonesia at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh and at COP15 in Copenhagen committed to achieve target of 26% reduction in carbon emissions from Business As Usual (BAU) by 2020. Further emissions reductions of 41% are expected with international support. With regard to the effort, presently Indonesia is preparing to take measures in the actions of limiting the emissions growth and in relation with sustainable development.

In 2010, at COP-16 in Mexico, the Parties further decided that “internationally supported mitigation actions will be measured, reported and verified (MRV) domestically and will be subject to international measurement, reporting and verification” while “domestically supported mitigation actions will be measured, reported and verified domestically”, in both cases, “in accordance with guidelines to be developed under the Convention”[3]. 

As part of the COP-16 decisions, developing countries also agreed to enhance reporting in national communications, including inventories, on mitigation actions and their effects, and support received. Developing countries will have to submit a national communication every four years and update reports of national GHG inventories every two years.

MRV is a concept to quantify mitigation actions, and the balance between commitments and qualitative actions. It stands for Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) and is firstly introduced in 2007 by the “Bali Action Plan” – BAP (decision 1/CP.13) under the UNFCCC and Copenhagen Accord in 2009. The BAP foresees MRV of nationally appropriate mitigation commitments or actions for developed countries.

Thus, to gain international recognition for mitigation actions, the country needs to establish a Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system which enables the need to measure, report, and verify the reduced emissions. Nevertheless, the MRV system is not only applied to emission reductions, but goes beyond it, as it will measure and monitor all enabling condition components (technology, finance, and capacity building) relevant to emission reduction measures[4].

By being “measurable, reportable and verifiable”, the GHG inventories, the low carbon development plans and the mitigation actions undertaken by the country are open and transparent to other actors, entities and decision makers, including those who were not part of the estimation, review, documentation, implementation and report process.

A third party, either from Indonesia or abroad, should be able to replicate the calculations, identify the data and assumptions used, understand the means by which a result is obtained or monitored (in the case of mitigation actions) and ultimately be able to verify what the country emits and what it does towards reducing its GHG emissions, and all through clear reports prepared by the country. 

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[1] The paper is presented at the 10th EES Biennial Conference at Helsinki-Findland and is written based on the current initivatives revealed in the Gap Analysis for the Development of MRV System of the NAMAs in Indonesia. The writer would also thanks to contributor writer in the PAKLIM GIZ, Mr Heiner Von Luepke, Anandita Laksmi, and Phillip Munzinger. In addition, gratitude to Mrs Sulistyawati and Mr. Agus Gunawan from the Ministry of Environment. Sincere thanks to EUMRVCB team Mr. Leandro Buendia, Dominik Smith, Juan Aredondo, and Paul Reed for the valuable sharing, thought, and co-writing in the EUMRVCB gaps report (a complement to this paper).

[2] Lead author; Currently working as Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist under the project of Decentralization as Contribution to Good Governance (DeCGG) GIZ Jakarta,  Founding members of Indonesian Development Evaluation Community (InDEC), Chair for Department of Advocacy, and Networking InDEC; an active member of South East Asia Community of Practice for Monitoring & Evaluation of Climate Change Intervensions (SEA Change CoP); a member of European Evaluation Society (EES); and member of Asia-Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA) initiatives.  

*) Disclaimer: The paper is shared mainly for knowledge and academic sharing. None of the concepts, approaches or statements in this paper should be taken as any official viewpoint of neither the Government of Indonesia nor any other agency (mentioned in the paper)

[3] UNFCCC (2010). Decision 1/CP.16. Report of the COP-16. Document FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1 page 11.

[4] Boer (2010, p. 5)