'Transparent climate reporting is a vital enabling tool to build stronger evidence base for more ambitious policies, drive greater investment and more resilient economies'

Below are remarks delivered by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell on 3 September 2025, during the high-level opening of the Global Transparency Forum taking place in Songdo, Republic of Korea, from 3-5 September.


Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, colleagues, dear friends,

I am honoured to join the Global Transparency Forum, and I thank the Government of the Republic of Korea for its continued leadership on this cornerstone of climate action.

This meeting takes place at a decisive moment.

Transparency has moved beyond a technical exercise. It is a vital enabling tool for all countries.

It helps governments - and indeed whole economies - to build a stronger evidence base: driving more ambitious climate policies over time, unlocking access to climate finance, and accelerating progress toward development goals.

To date, more than 100 nations have submitted their first Biennial Transparency Reports - or BTRs. By doing so, these governments have made a very smart investment.

Because compiling strong climate data enables more inbound investment, and stronger policies that reap the huge benefits of the global shift to clean energy and climate resilience: stronger economic growth, more jobs, better health and much lower health costs, more affordable and secure energy, and rising living standards.

These reports represent years of effort to build systems, mobilise expertise, and institutionalise climate reporting.

Many countries are using their Transparency Reports to identify urgent needs for finance, technology, and capacity-building, while also highlighting innovative approaches in adaptation - from new sources of finance to inclusive governance structures or locally-driven resilience metrics.

This is the impact of transparency: it accelerates ambition, sharpens policy, and strengthens the case for investment.

The Enhanced Transparency Framework or ETF may have been the quiet achiever of the Paris Agreement, but let me speak loud and clear about how proud I am of what my secretariat team have delivered, because the progress made, and benefits delivered, are significant:

• More than 10,000 experts from over 140 developing countries have taken part in ETF training and peer exchanges.
• Over 1,200 experts are now certified BTR reviewers.
• Over 1,400 national officials are using ETF tools to compile and submit their reports.

Where gaps remain - and the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee has identified 37 Parties still missing one or more mandatory ETF reports - we will work with Parties on their capacity and resource constraints. No country can be left behind.

The BTR synthesis report, to be released ahead of COP30, will deliver a valuable early picture of implementation progress by countries across mitigation, adaptation, and support.

It will offer initial insights into diverse national efforts to implement the Paris Agreement - including some of the barriers that must be overcome, and the successes that can be built upon.

It will also be a crucial input informing the next Global Stocktake.

The report will be released prior to COP30 in Brazil, which itself will have a strong focus on driving implementation in the real economy, to the benefit of real people everywhere.

Indeed, bringing our COP process closer to real economy implementation will be a defining feature of this next decade of global climate action.

So make no mistake - the ETF, and the evidence base built by these reports, will be vital to getting the Paris machinery into top gear.

Colleagues, we often say: what gets measured gets managed.

But let me take it further:

What is measured can be acted upon.

What is reported helps build trust and collaboration.

And what is shared becomes a force for change.

Looking to COP30, we must keep transparency central to climate ambition, support all countries to reap the benefits of meeting their reporting goals, and turn insights into faster progress on implementation.

I commend this Forum as a vital moment to help turn reporting into stronger real-world results, and transparency into transformation.

I thank you.