Handbook for conducting Technology Needs Assessment for Climate Change

At its seventh session, held in Marrakech (Morocco) in 2001, the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) encouraged developing countries to conduct assessments of their technology needs for climate change mitigation and adaptation and sustainable development. In order to help countries in this work, a handbook for technology needs assessments (TNA handbook) was prepared. In 2007, at its thirteenth session, the COP underlined the importance of TNAs and requested UNDP to update the TNA handbook.

Building on lessons from earlier TNA efforts, the updated Technology Needs Assessments (TNA) Handbook offers a systematic approach for conducting TNA in order to identify, evaluate and prioritize mitigation and adaptation technologies. It also provides processes and methodologies to optimise frameworks and capacities by minimising gaps as well as formulating national action plans to overcome barriers, as part of an overall climate change strategy.

In order to make the process of conducting a technology needs assessment easier and more practical, and to help facilitate informed decision making processes in an intuitively easy-to-follow manner, two main supporting tools have been developed:

• TNAssess, a tool to facilitate and practically guide the sector and technology prioritization processes, using easy-to-follow Multi Criteria Decision Analysis processes, and
• ClimateTechWiki, a web-based digital platform that hosts detailed information on technology options for mitigation and adaptation

Commissioned by : United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)