Approximately 40% of the technical assistance requests received by the CTCN over the past year have focused on creating enabling environments through the analysis and development of sectoral roadmaps, strategies, policies, and regulatory guidelines. For example, the CTCN is currently collaborating with the Kyrgyz Republic on the development of policy guidelines for building codes related to enhancing energy efficiency.

Capacity building initiatives included the organisation of technology clinics for small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia and Africa in order to generate awareness of technologies available to businesses and the new markets that can be established through their use. In countries such as the Dominican Republic, the CTCN is supporting the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism to overcome barriers to private-sector engagement in mitigation and adaptation action required to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions.

The CTCN expanded awareness of its technology services and shared information on adaptation and mitigation technologies by engaging stakeholders through newsletters, web and social media content, videos and numerous online events throughout the year. The CTCN’s activities were covered 598 times in global and national media, and earned 29,1 million impressions on social media. The CTCN has also hosted and/or presented at over 30 events and launched a joint publication with the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) entitled “Women in Energy: Breaking Stereotypes and Inspiring Change.”

The CTCN, in partnership with UNFCCC Women and Gender Constituency and Women Engage for a Common Future, continued its support for gender-responsive technologies by conducting capacity development throughout the year for Gender-Just Climate Solutions Award winners and other organisations addressing gender and climate change. Participants increased their understanding of climate negotiations, met with UNFCCC and their countries’ climate change representatives, and engaged in in-depth capacity building on advocacy, entrepreneurship, project design, technology identification, and financing. They regularly exchanged experiences on their projects and identified synergies for future collaboration and multi-country projects that can fuel ambitious climate action. Participants from throughout Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, represented innovative solutions in agriculture, circular economy, fishery, forestry, renewable energy, water, and waste management. Through mentoring, participants received support to develop financial and technical assistance proposals that will advance the upscaling of their initiatives. For example, one of the organizations, Enda Graf Sahel, successfully submitted a CTCN technical assistance request to assess the technical and economic feasibility for solar mill use in women-led agri-food SMEs.

A capacity building event was presented by the CTCN, UNEP DTU Partnership, and Women and Gender Constituency on “Conducting a Gender-Responsive Technology Needs Assessment.” The event shared countries’ results from the first year of utilising the TNA Gender Guidebook in the TNA process, as well as practical examples of gender mainstreaming in climate technology processes and their impacts.

The CTCN supports information and knowledge sharing on the linkages between gender and climate technology processes by providing access to information via its gender hub on the CTCN website, which contains nearly 700 knowledge resources related to gender and climate.

The CTCN online knowledge portal contains over 15,000 information resources and can be viewed in all six UN languages. Visitors to the site can access climate technology case studies, descriptions, national planning documents, publications, tools, and webinars. The number of visitors to the CTCN website increased by 62% over the previous year.

The most visited web pages included technology descriptions and products, technical assistance descriptions, and Network information. Among the top 30 countries who spend the most time on www.ctc-n.org, one third are LDCs and nearly one-third are SIDS. Africa represents half of top users, followed by Latin America & the Caribbean and then Asia-Pacific.

CTCN webinars, delivered in collaboration with Network members and other partners, presented new and innovative technology approaches. Recent webinars included relevant topics such as environmentally sound management of COVID-19 waste, and the relationship between climate change, food security and COVID-19. To date, over 6,000 participants have benefited from 141 CTCN webinars and events.

Regional Technical Expert Meetings on Mitigation were organised jointly by the TEC and the CTCN on the theme of climate smart cooling solutions for sustainable buildings. Virtual meetings, organised for Africa, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and West Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, provided an opportunity for stakeholders to share information on new sustainable solutions for cooling that take into consideration climate impacts and new societal needs, policies that should be developed and implemented to optimize the use of energy and resources, and challenges that prevent the private sector from investing in more environmentally-friendly cooling equipment. Special focus was given to natural and passive cooling solutions, including the design of buildings using local knowledge, construction techniques and materials.

The CTCN commissioned an analysis of select capacity building activities to gain an understanding of the opportunities for transformational impact of future initiatives. It was found that capacity building enhanced the abilities of key actors, namely government representatives and private sector, NGO, and civil society organisations, to drive transformational interventions. The study will be released in 2021 and will provide more detailed information.

In addition, in order to capture the transformative outcomes achieved by award winners and capacity building participants of the Gender-Just Climate Solutions programme, an impact review has recently been completed. The review found that 70% of the participants were able to access new funding after programme participation, and all were able to replicate or upscale their projects and thereby generate greater impact. The information provided through surveys and interviews demonstrated that including gender considerations in climate action lays the foundation for multiple transformative benefits, including in areas such as food security, sustainable land management, poverty alleviation, health and well-being, decent work and economic development. It can also contribute to redressing power imbalances and patriarchal norms, ensuring equal participation in decision-making, and enabling greater access to and control over resources, including finances.

The CTCN collaborated with the Adaptation Fund and the Paris Committee for Capacity Building to launch an Adaptation & Capacity Building Newsletter at COP 25. The e-newsletter, distributed quarterly, compiles information from a number of bodies and organizations on adaptation-related trainings, publications, workshops, and webinars for those engaged in strengthening resilience to climate change.