An event on the role of Supreme Audit Institutions in climate action organized by INTOSAI and the Chamber of Accounts was held within COP29
An event on “Where are the governments with their climate action?” – ClimateScanner assessment results” organized by the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan and INTOSAI, the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions was held within the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) on November 14, 2024.
Along with the representatives of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of Brazil, Finland, Canada, and other countries and the European Court of Auditors, a number of prestigious international organizations, including the UN Development Program, the UN Population Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other institutions, as well as the heads of the state bodies attended the event.
Firstly, Vugar Gulmammadov, the Chairman of the Chamber of Accounts, delivered a welcome speech. He noted that implementation of activities to reduce the effects of climate change and to adapt to these effects requires allocation of significant financial and public funds. This makes the participation of SAIs important in ensuring the purposeful use of those funds, as well as transparency and accountability. The Chairman mentioned the challenges that emerged during the audits conducted in the field of climate action.
At the same time, in his speech, the Chairman gave brief information on the Climate Scanner and expressed his belief that this initiative will bring positive results both at the national and international level, and he noted that more effective joint activities of the international SAI community are necessary for it.
COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev also gave a speech at the event dedicated to the ClimateScanner preliminary results. In his speech, the speaker touched the importance of focusing on climate changes and mentioned the role of the audit institute in monitoring the activities in this area.
The event continued with the speech by Mr. Vital do Rego, the Vice-President of the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts, INTOSAI Chair, and Klaus-Heiner Lehne, a member of the European Court of Auditors.
Then, the representative of the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts, Hugo Chudison, announced the preliminary global results of the ClimateScanner tool. He noted that 240 auditors were trained to evaluate the measures taken by national governments on climate. It is noted that, so far 141 SAIs acting as external auditors of their governments have been involved in the ClimateScanner initiative and 61 of them have completed the assessment to date.
Then, a real experience of the ClimateScanner assessment (exemplified by the activities of SAI Mozambique) was presented by a representative of the SAI Mozambique.
The event continued with panel discussions held with the participation of representatives of SAIs Canada and India and the European Court of Auditors. Views on the experiences of SAIs and lessons learned from the assessment tool, as well as opportunities to improve effective climate governance and accountability at the national level were exchanged during panel discussions.
At the end of the discussions, a question-and-answer session was held.
The event was completed with the closing remarks of the representatives of the INTOSAI Development Initiative and the United Nations Development Program.
