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1.Recognizes the need to enhance common understanding on key terminology for reporting financial information under the Convention to facilitate transparency and comparability of information and data on support over time and across Parties;
2.Welcomes the submissions from Parties and observer organizations on methodologies for the reporting of financial information, and the technical paper1 summarizing existing international methodologies, drawing on relevant information contained in, inter alia, submissions from Parties and observer organizations;
3.Also welcomes the joint in-session technical workshop on the methodologies for the reporting of financial information by Parties included in Annex I to the Convention organized under the auspices of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, the Subsidiary Body for Implementation and the Standing Committee on Finance, taking note of the summary of the workshop;2
4.Further welcomes the update of the Standing Committee on Finance on this matter, as a part of its work on the measurement, reporting and verification of support beyond the biennial assessment and overview of climate finance flows provided during the forty-third session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice;
5.Welcomes the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance on the methodologies for the reporting of financial information, as referred to in decision 2/CP.17, paragraph 19, contained in its report to the Conference of the Parties at its twenty-first session;3
6.Decides to enhance consistency and transparency through adjustments in the reporting parameters in tables 7, 7(a) and 7(b) of the common tabular format for the "UNFCCC biennial reporting guidelines for developed country Parties" by:
(a)Creating reporting fields for the provision of information on definitions or methodologies used for reporting information in the following reporting parameters: "climate-specific" or "core/general", "status", "funding source", "activity", "financial instrument", "type of support" and "sector";
(b)Improving the software for tables 7, 7(a) and 7(b) of the common tabular format by extending the number of input rows in the Microsoft Excel file;
(c)Aligning the categorization in the reporting parameter "status" of support ("pledged", "committed" and "provided") in tables 7, 7(a) and 7(b) of the common tabular format with the categorization used in other existing international methodologies ("committed" and "disbursed");
7.Requests the secretariat to revise the electronic reporting application for a common tabular format, in accordance with the provisions contained in the annex, in time for the preparation and submission of the biennial reports of Parties due in 2018;
8.Decides that developed country Parties shall use the revised electronic reporting application, taking into account their national circumstances, when preparing and submitting their biennial reports in 2018 in accordance with decision 2/CP.17;
9.Requests Parties included in Annex II to the Convention to continue to provide information on the underlying assumptions and the methodologies used in their biennial reports;
10.Also requests the secretariat to improve the software of the biennial report data interface to allow for search functions on the UNFCCC website to collect information per key category in tables 7, 7(a) and 7(b) of the common tabular format (i.e. category "recipient country/region, financial instrument");
11.Further requests the secretariat to explore ways of creating links to other reporting software and platforms to facilitate the importation and exportation of activity-level data, and to inform the Standing Committee on Finance to take this into consideration in its workplan;
12.Requests the secretariat to update the UNFCCC national focal points when the information referred to in paragraph 6 above on climate finance directed to recipient countries as reported under the Convention is made available;
13.Also requests the Standing Committee on Finance to take into account the enhanced information provided by Parties included in Annex II to the Convention referred to in paragraph 6 above in its biennial assessment and overview of climate finance flows;
14.Further requests the Standing Committee on Finance to take into account the work on the methodologies for the reporting of financial information by Parties included in Annex I to the Convention in the context of its workplan on the measurement, reporting and verification of support;
15.Invites the Subsidiary Body for Implementation to take into consideration the adjustments referred to in paragraph 6 above in its revision of the "Guidelines for the preparation of national communications by Parties included in Annex I to the Convention, Part II: UNFCCC reporting guidelines on national communications", to be completed at the twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (November 2016);
16.Takes note of the estimated budgetary implications of the activities to be undertaken by the secretariat pursuant to the provisions contained in paragraphs 7, 10 and 11 above;
17.Requests that the actions of the secretariat called for in this decision be undertaken subject to the availability of financial resources.