Supporting the development of robust and comparable mitigation actions through the Mitigation Action Assessment Protocol.

The World Bank has developed the Mitigation Action Assessment Protocol (MAAP) tool, aimed at achieving transparency in how mitigation actions (MA) are designed and how they compare in terms of mitigation value. The long-term goal is to have the MAAP serve as an internationally accepted system for assessing how MA are robust and ambitious enough to contribute to achieve the mitigation targets of their relevant jurisdiction, and eventually, the trade potential and exchangeability of carbon credits. As an expansion of the MAAP tool and due to the fact that many MA that are planned to contribute to countries Nationally Determined Contributions still are at the design stage, the World Bank is in the process of developing the MAAP-Design, aimed at assessing MA at design stage. The MAAP-Design will therefore be an important tool to assess how MA at the design stage are robust and ambitious enough to contribute to the achievement of NDC goals, and national and regional climate and development strategies. In addition, in spite of numerous available MA designs, the number of implemented actions falls short of the expected and needed level of implementation. This has been attributed to a mismatch between the design of MA and expected design standards of international financiers, leading to a backlog in disbursement of readily available funds. Therefore, the MAAP-Design will also enable practitioners to compare their MA design with existing good practices, and will allow financiers to access pre-assessed quality MAs.
UDP will review the MAAP-Design and provide suggestions on how the tool can be more attuned to the design phase of mitigation actions (MAs). The peer review will be based on UDP's extensive knowledge and capacity building support on mitigation actions (MA) in developing countries. The MAAP tool and MAAP-Design will be piloted in an independent approach on 20 MAs, both at design and implementation stage. . Out of the 20 MA, 5 will be selected for a full assessment including coordination and site visits with the country's MA representative. This initial product will be used to showcase the MAAP tool and MAAP-Design's utility through a set of outreach activities based on UDP's extensive network of partner countries and institutions, and on specific events in coordination with the World Bank. The outreach activities will also serve as a donor outreach process with the aim to fund future activities to develop and maintain a Mitigation Actions Database based on MA assessed through the MAAP tool, and to increase the MAAP Tool's application, ease of access and visibility.
Further, dependent on the donor outreach phase's success, UDP proposes to apply the tool to a selection of 50 MAs. Lastly, to increase the tool’s utility and visibility, UDP proposes to create and maintain a database of MAs assessed with the MAAP tool and MAAP-Design and make the information publicly available in a user-friendly design on a dedicated website.
The following specifies how UDP intends to carry out the three tasks described in the Terms of Reference:
1. Support the development of a version of the MAAP Tool aimed at assessing mitigation actions at the design stage.
2. Design and implement an independent assessment process for mitigation actions using the MAAP Tool.
3. Enhance the comparability of mitigation actions by providing the relevant information to different stakeholders in the form of a publicly available database.