The content of this report may be used for furthering research and development on climate smart rice with

proper
citation in favour of the authors and organizations involved © 2022.

Recommended citation: Goheer, M.A., S.S. Hassan, S. Mushtaq, Khan, S.R. and A. I. Sheikh. 2022. Country
Report – Developing Measurement, Reporting and Verification Platform for Rice in Pakistan. UNEP Asia Pacific
Office and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

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Credentials
This study was financed by Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) initiative https://www.ccacoalition.org/en

Authors

Muhammad Arif Goheer

Head Agriculture & Coordination, Global Change Impacts Studies Centre (GCISC), Ministry of Climate Change,
Islamabad

Shershah Hassan
Research Associate, Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC)

Saqib Mushtaq
IT Expert, Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC),

Shahrukh Khan
National Coordinator WAPRO, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation Pakistan

Ali Imran Sheikh

Sourcing Manager, Galaxy Rice Mills Pakistan

Peer review

Arjumand Nizami, PhD

Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
https://www.helvetas.org/en/switzerland

Marci Rose Baranski

Programme Management Officer
UN Environment Programme, Asia & Pacific Office
Marci.Baranski@un.org

Institutional Support
Makiko Yahiro
Programme Officer/Regional Coordinator for Ecosystem Management Sub-Programme
UN Environment’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)

W. Wyn Ellis, PhD

Executive Director,
Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP)

Jens Soth, PhD

Senior Advisor Commodity Projects,
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation Switzerland

Members of Advisory Committee

Anjum Buttar, PhD
Director General, Agriculture Extension Department, Government of Punjab

Shahid Tarar
Managing Director, Galaxy Rice Mills Pakistan

Dr. Nihaluddin Marri

Director Sugarcane Research Institute, Agriculture Department Sindh

Dr. Fazal Khan

Medical practitioner / Progressive farmers

Designer
Salman

Technically supported by: Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

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Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................................................... 1

1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3
2 ANALYSIS OF EXISTING DATA MANAGEMENT, DIGITAL TOOLS AND PLATFORMS ................................... 5
2.1 Current MRV Situation in Pakistan ............................................................................................................................ 5
2.2 National Initiative for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) .................................................................... 6
2.3 Sectoral MRV process in Pakistan .............................................................................................................................. 6
2.4 Agriculture and Livestock Sector ............................................................................................................................... 6
3 BASELINE VALUE OF METHANE EMISSION ................................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Study Area ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9
3.2 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................................................ 9
3.3 Rice Map of Sindh and Punjab Province Pakistan ............................................................................................ 11
4 ASSESSMENT OF SUITABILITY AND LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING MRV SYSTEMS ..................................... 13
4.1 Overview of the Efforts on Developing and MRV System in Pakistan ..................................................... 13
4.2 Contours of the National MRV system................................................................................................................... 15
4.3 Legal basis for GHG MRV system ............................................................................................................................. 15
4.4 Institutional arrangements ........................................................................................................................................ 18
4.5 Solution requirements .................................................................................................................................................. 18
4.6 Proposed MRV Structure ............................................................................................................................................. 19
4.7 MRV of GHG inventory.................................................................................................................................................. 19
4.8 MRV of Mitigation and Adaptation.......................................................................................................................... 21
4.9 MRV of Support................................................................................................................................................................ 22
4.10 Data Providers ............................................................................................................................................................ 22
4.10.1 GHG inventory (Track 1) ............................................................................................................................. 22
4.10.2 Mitigation and Adaptation Actions/Policies (Track 2) .................................................................. 22
4.10.3 Support Received (Track 3) ....................................................................................................................... 22
4.10.4 Key components of Institutional Arrangements .............................................................................. 22
4.10.5 Stakeholder engagements .......................................................................................................................... 22
4.10.6 Organizational mandates: ........................................................................................................................... 23
4.11 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................................. 25
4.12 Recommendations for MRV for RICE ............................................................................................................... 25
5 NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR AN MRV SYSTEM FOR LOW EMISSIONS RICE ACTIVITIES ............................ 27
5.1 Existing Data ..................................................................................................................................................................... 27
5.2 New Data ............................................................................................................................................................................ 27
5.3 Emission Calculations and Methodology ............................................................................................................. 28
6 MRV TEMPLATES AND PROTOCOLS FOR COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENTATION OF RICE NAMAS .. 29
7 DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL MRV PLATFORM & ITS ANCHORAGE ................................................................. 31
8 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................................................. 32

List of Figures
Figure 1: Methodology Flowchart ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 2: Spatial distribution of rice crop over Sindh and Punjab Province of Pakistan ............................... 11
Figure 3: Methane emission from rice fields in Punjab and Sindh ................................................................................. 12
Figure 4: International timeline to set-up the ETF CGE: 2020 ......................................................................................... 14
Figure 5: Existing institutional structure for GHG MRV in Pakistan ............................................................................. 20
Figure 6: Key Components of Institutional Arrangements ................................................................................................ 24
Figure 7: Platform for GHG-I and M&E Tool for Adaptation Tracking ......................................................................... 25
Figure 8: Schematic Diagram of Data Collection on Agriculture in Pakistan ............................................................. 27
Figure 9: Data flow for MRV system ............................................................................................................................................ 30

List of Tables
Table 1: Summary of National Initiative for SDGs .................................................................................................................... 6
Table 2: Rice cropping area (ha) and methane emission from the filed based on IPCC method ............................11

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
According the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change 2007, immediate action was required to decrease the risk of more severe climate
change impacts due to unprecedented warming of the climate. In response to these
findings the 2008 The Bali Action Plan introduced the terms “measurable, reportable
and verifiable” (MRV) greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation actions and commitments, and
support for GHG mitigation actions in developing countries. This report assesses
Pakistan’s experience relevant to MRV provisions and recommends design options for a
digital MRV system to support mitigation and adaptation actions to achieve Pakistan’s
Nationally Determined Contributions.

According to the UNFCCC, agricultural activities contribute to around 44% of the total
GHG emissions in Pakistan (UNFCCC, 2015). Rice is one of Pakistan’s major export
commodities and the second largest domestically consumed staple. Rice paddies have
been under scientific scrutiny for some time because they produce methane (CH4) and
nitrous oxide (N2O). Around 12% of global annual methane emissions come from rice
paddies (World Economic Forum, 2019). CH4 emissions from rice paddies may be
significantly reduced through proper water management practices. Therefore,
understanding and knowing the mechanism and quantities of CH4 production and release
in the rice field is fundamental to develop efficient strategies to reduce emissions from
rice cultivated soil. This report addresses the urgency to reliably quantify CH4 emissions
and to develop mitigation strategies for their reduction in the rice paddy sector. This
report discusses the emission of CH4, reference emissions levels, and addresses the
current availability of data on how field and crop management activities influence
CH4 emissions in rice fields.

Considering the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) requirements under the Paris
Agreement and reporting through Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) and Nationally
Determined Contributions (NDC), Government of Pakistan has been very keen to have a
coherent MRV System to track methane emissions from rice paddies. Efforts have been
underway to develop a an MRV system for Pakistan since the last two years. The Global
Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) at the Ministry of Climate Change had been
engaged in working towards the development of an MRV platform for GHG inventories
and mitigation, called as Pakistan Transparency Platform. The platform was made
functional in October 2021.

The platform will be further expanded in capability to perform the monitoring and
evaluation functions for adaptation measures. As of now, the adaptation tracking
platform has been made functional for the agriculture sector on a pilot basis and will be
gradually extended to other key sectors of economy. The platform will become functional
for adaptation tracking for water sector by the end of 2022. Besides the efforts of
extending it to other sectors, the institutional arrangements for continuous flow of data
are being made by entering into formal agreements with key national and provincial data
providers and stakeholders. Of the three components of the MRV system i.e., MRV for
mitigation, MRV for adaptation and MRV for support and finance, the platform / MRV
mechanism for the latter two is established and capacity for the support and finance
component will be added over the next two years. The MRV system is expected be fully
functional by 2024 at Global Change Impact Studies Centre.

1
In the context of rice, this report focuses on developing a digital database that may be
used to inform national climate policy decisions and to set goals that are set relative to
conventional crop management regimes in Pakistan. This report also
defines responsibilities under the proposed MRV framework needed to be taken up by
stakeholders in order to determine the scope, inputs, process, outputs, frequency and use
of data for reliable accounting of GHG emissions in the rice sector under new technology
regimes such as Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) and Direct Seeding (DSR) in rice
paddies.

For this purpose, a high-end server with full web solution compliant to TCP/IP, HTTPS,
HTML, CSS standards and flexible user-friendly interfaces is setup at GCISC as a dedicated
a National MRV system for Rice in Pakistan. Access to the platform will be provided to
federal and provincial organizations relevant to the rice sector after concluding formal
institutional arrangements for data sharing and use under the said data management
system The system will also use International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) tools
especially Source-Selective and Emission-Adjusted GHG Calculator (SECTOR) to calculate
and report methane emissions estimations and reductions, from baseline, as a result of
innovative technologies of AWD and DSR. The data analyzed using IRRI tools will serve
as a pivot for developing rice NAMAs in Pakistan as well as the current report. It is hoped
that the proposed system will facilitate strategic and cost-effective decision-making on
climate policy and generate transparent and comparable information that will build
confidence in improving the level of ambition regarding mitigation actions among
stakeholders.

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1 INTRODUCTION

Rice is considered as the most important agricultural crop among staples in Pakistan after
wheat. It is grown on an area of 3.5 million hectare (mha) with the production of 9.3
million tonnes (mt). Over time, rice has emerged as a major export commodity
contributing to about 13% of the total foreign exchange earnings of the country.
Pakistan’s share of the world rice trade is around 11% (Economic Survey of Pakistan
2019-20).

In Pakistan rice is grown under diverse climatic, hydrological and edaphic conditions and
is divided into 4 distinct agroecological zones in Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Provinces. Majority of the area under rice cultivation, is dominated
by the traditional practice of continuous flooding irrigation which leads to methane gas
emissions. As per GHG Inventory 2018, the methane emissions from Rice were 7.83 Mt
CO2 Eq. (GCISC, 2021). Due to declining water resources and high-water requirement of
traditional methods, it is the need of the hour to enhance water-use efficiency and water
productivity in Pakistan. In addition to continuous flooding, traditional rice growing
system of manually transplanting (MT) rice saplings into flooded fields is not only
laborious, time consuming and costly but also consumes more water. MT results in low
plant population per acer and ultimately poor rice yields. Wet land preparation
“puddling” essential for paddy cultivation also results in poor crop stature) crops leading
to poor yield.

Among various technologies, dry direct seeded rice (DSR) is one of the options for water
conservation. DSR refers to the process of establishing a rice crop from seeds sown in the
field rather than by transplanting seedlings from the nursery. The Pakistan Agricultural
Research Council (PARC) developed direct dry seeding of rice cultivation technology
initially through small plot field experimentation at National Agricultural Research
Center (NARC) in early 1980s. PARC started introducing this low-cost direct seed
technology to the rice growing farming community through field demonstration in
Punjab in late 1990s. The direct dry seed technology was upscaled in the province of
Punjab and Sindh by executing the project “sustaining the productivity of rice-based
cropping system through new interventions in Punjab and Sindh province” in 2019. The
technology has numerous advantages in terms of resource conservation and positive
environmental impacts such as:

• Water saving – more than 25%

• Reduction in GHG emissions – 80-90% reduction in CH4 emissions
• Increase or Non-significant decrease in rice yields
• Better plant growth
• Improved soil structure – better productivity of the subsequent crop i.e. wheat,
chickpea, and mustered
• Early crop maturity and timely sowing of next crop – 7-10 days which allows
timely planting of subsequent crops
• Reduced costs of planting – save labor 1-2 v/s 25-30 for Transplantation The
second option in resource conservation is Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD).
This technology also reduces the water requirements and curtail the methane
emission to half.

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Given the water availability constraints and environmental impacts, this study targets all
farmers in Punjab and Sindh provinces who cultivate rice in irrigated fields. It aims to
design an MRV framework for accounting the GHG emissions from rice under the new
technology regimes of Alternate Wetting and Drying and Direct Seeded rice. It is expected
that successful long-term implementation of these technologies can curtail the methane
emissions by 60% from rice. Carrying out both sets of interventions simultaneously is a
prerequisite for the NAMA option to bring the necessary sectoral transformations.

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2 ANALYSIS OF EXISTING DATA MANAGEMENT, DIGITAL TOOLS, PLATFORMS

Analysis of existing data management, digital tools and platforms, and systems was
conducted for their relevance, suitability and limitations to Measurement, Reporting and
Verification (MRV) systems of low emissions rice activities.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted in

1992 and entered into force in 1994, laid the foundation for the current system of
reporting of information related to its implementation. Information on greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions by sources and removals by sinks, as well as on the actions that parties
are taking to mitigate and adapt to climate change to implement the Convention, is the
key to determine the progress on the implementation of the Convention. Over the decade
since the Convention was adopted the Framework was further elaborated to include
development of a structured approach to measurement, reporting and, after COP 13 in
Bali, also to verification. Parties adopted a number of decisions detailing guidance,
including on the content and frequency of national communications, and established
provisions for biennial update reports (BURs) and domestic frameworks for MRV.

The Bali Action Plan introduced language on “Measurable, Reportable and Verifiable”
GHGs mitigation, actions and commitments, as well as support for GHG mitigation actions
in developing countries. UNFCCC requests commitments or pledges, and to provide
background information on the scope and ambitions of national climate change
responses. Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the UNFCCC Paris
Agreement, to which Pakistan is a signatory, has transformed the requirements for
national MRV and GHG system for all developing countries (UNFCCC, 2020).

This Chapter reviews the current MRV situation and processes in Pakistan for different
sectors including energy; agriculture and livestock; industry; land use change and
forestry; and waste management. The Chapter proposes essential features of a national
MRV system including: MRV components; Reporting requirements; and MRV pathways
for GHG inventory, mitigation and adaptation, and support. The Chapter also identifies
data providers for GHG inventory and mitigation/adaptation actions/policies, and
support required and received. Key components of institutional arrangements,
stakeholders’ engagements and organizations’ mandates are also included.

2.1 Current MRV situation in Pakistan

Government of Pakistan has well developed mechanisms for measuring, monitoring and
reporting physical and financial parameters of the projects in the country. The country
however does not have any system for GHG emissions MRV. Pakistan Economic Survey,
Ministry of Finance (MoF) monitors and publishes annual report of the economic
condition of various sectors in Pakistan including energy, agriculture, climate change and
many others. As a developing country, Pakistan does not have institutional arrangements
for GHG Inventory preparation or broader climate MRV. However, Pakistan has
conducted ad-hoc project-based inventory work, which has helped build somewhat
sustainable institutional capacity for ongoing and continuously improving MRV outputs.
The project under National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) developed an MRV system
for REDD+ in Pakistan to support continuous monitoring of forest and land/use change
(Arbonaut Oy/WWF-Pakistan, 2018). Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) has been
working towards developing standards to make the climate change monitoring process

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efficient and effective. The Ministry is in the process of revision of NDCs to collaborate on
MRV and GHG emission inventory strengthening components under the UNFCCC
reporting.

2.2 National Initiative for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives (MoP&SI), Government of
Pakistan in collaboration with the provincial Planning & Development departments and
support of UNDP-Pakistan has launched a five-years joint project of “National Initiative
for Sustainable Development Goals” to institutionalize 2030 Agenda (MoP&SI, 2016). The
initiative brings together the planning, financing and statistical institutions to work
collectively to lay foundation of SDGs implementation in the country.

Table 1 is the summary of the initiative.

Table 1: Summary of National Initiative for SDGs

Policies and Plans Data Reporting Financing Innovation
Mainstreaming SDGs Strengthening Financing flows Supporting integrated
in local development coordination, increasingly aligned and innovative
plans and strategies reporting and with 2030 Agenda approaches to
clearly delineating the monitoring accelerate progress
resource requirement mechanism for SDGs on SDGs on priority

Periodic monitoring and evaluation of various strands of the SDGs framework remains
an important priority. Baseline and targets for all SDG indicators have been determined
since 2018. National data collection tools have been modified to improve data availability
with a focus on equity and sustainability aspects of SDGs. Transparency would be a major
hallmark of the monitoring and evaluation architecture – through the establishment of
SDGs dashboard.

2.3 Sectoral MRV process in Pakistan

Pakistan currently lacks an appropriately detailed, comprehensive and unambiguous
framework and legal basis for national GHG MRV. The following section describes the
current monitoring system in Pakistan for various parameters, some maybe not related
to GHG emissions.

2.4 Agriculture and Livestock Sector

The agriculture and livestock sector is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in collaboration
with erstwhile Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MINFA); developed a satellite-based
crop monitoring system which provides fast track and accurate information on crops and
also reports any catastrophic situations. Agricultural mask of Pakistan developed based
on high resolution data acquires during peak growth seasons of February for Rabi (dry
season) crops and September for Kharif (monsoon season) crops. SUPARCO carries out
wall to wall coverage of the agriculture area of the country using remote sensing data.
This data is utilized to monitor various crops across seasons (SUPARCO, 2021).

Planning and Research Monitoring Cell of National Agriculture Research Center (NARC)
coordinates research related activities and monitors evaluation of research efforts. The
objectives of this cell are to provide technical support to the NARC management and

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develop data base of research activities. Adaptation of technologies available from
international research is also managed by NARC, in collaboration with the provincial
research and extension institutions (NARC, 2013).

Distribution of livestock between provinces (first proxy for environment classification)

is available from the livestock census, conducted every 10 years. Yet the last livestock
census was completed in 2006. Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) is the apex
national organization in Pakistan working in close collaboration with public and private
sector institutions in the country to provide science-based solutions for the development
of agriculture in Pakistan whereas Livestock and Dairy Development Board (LDDB) is
meant to promote and facilitate development of dairy, meat and allied commodities in
the country to achieve the full potential of livestock in Pakistan. LDDB is also working for
poverty reduction in rural areas to contribute to the economic growth of Pakistan. Under
the project titled “Prime Minister’s Initiative for Back Yard Poultry” monitoring of Avian
Influenza and Newcastle Disease and improving productive performance of Backyard
Poultry through Propagation of Superior Hybrid Poultry Birds are also areas of
cooperation between LDDB and PARC.

Pakistan started preparing the GHG inventories in the last decade which also accounts for
the emissions from the rice sector however a well-established MRV system (as per
UNFCCC requirements) does not exist in general for any sector and specifically for Rice
sector.

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3 BASELINE VALUE OF METHANE EMISSION

This chapter provides baseline map of paddy cultivation in Pakistan and quantifies
baseline value of methane emission by region based on agricultural statistics.

Sustainable agriculture and food security is an important component of the United

Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and are closely related to global
development and human livelihood (Whitcraft et al., 2019). The timely monitoring of
agricultural activities grasps the accurate grain production situation, which is of great
significance to the macro-control and maintenance of grain security. According to the
FAOSTAT 2020 yearbook, paddy rice accounted for 9% of the world’s crop production
and is one of the most critical food supplies for human nutrition (FAO, 2020). A significant
amount of rice (more than 80% of world production) is usually produced in Asia (Mosleh
& Hassan, 2014). After wheat and maize, rice is the third most widely cultivated grain, the
cultivation activities of paddy rice greatly influence not only the global rice marketing
and the rice-reliant populations but also the hydrologic cycle and the ecological balance
(Mohammadi et al., 2017; Oo et al., 2018).

Rice is the second major cash crop in Pakistan, which has a competitive advantage in
production of aromatic basmati rice. Rice is a high delta crop and consuming large
amount of water during cultivation process.

The two major rice producing area in Pakistan are Punjab and Sindh, accounting for 56%
and 39% of total production, respectively (GOP, 2013). Approximately 95% of global rice
is cultivated on flooded land (Belder et al., 2004). Rice required large amount of water for
cultivation and has an important impact on water quality. Similarly, rice fields are one of
the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions (Li et al., 2004). Therefore, accurate high-
resolution maps of paddy rice distribution are critical for food production, water
management, agriculture migration, and agriculture adaption under global climate
change (Döll, 2002).

Methane (CH4) is a major greenhouse gas (GHG) among all of atmospheric gases.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), based on 100-yr
global warming potentials, the warming capacity of CH4 are 25–30 times higher than that
of CO2 per unit of weight (IPCC, 2007). Approximately 50% of global atmospheric inputs
of CH4 comes from agricultural activities (UNEP, 2021). Rice paddies have been
recognized as a major source of atmospheric CH4. Emissions from global rice paddies
contributes approximately 10% of atmospheric CH4 (Neue, 1993; Scheehle & Kruger,
2006); (USEPA, 2006). From the perspective of GHG mitigation, reducing CH4 emissions
from rice paddies is an immense opportunity to combat climate change (Cerri et al., 1996;
Oenema et al., 2001). Therefore, accurately estimating CH4 emissions from rice paddies
has become more important for GHG inventory or mitigation at country or regional levels.

The rapid development in remote sensing techniques offers good opportunities to

monitor paddy rice areas on regional and global scales. Over the past two decades,
Remote Sensing (RS) has been widely used in mapping paddy lands (Lallianthanga et al.,
2013; Lee et al., 2012; Salam, 2014). Spectral indices are the most common method in RS
used for agricultural area detection (Mosleh & Hassan, 2014).

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Land cover is defined the physical properties of the earth’s surface like distribution of
plants, water, soil, and human activity such as urbanization. Both the type of usage and
the land cover is influenced by land use. Therefore, monitoring the land-use change is an
important task. For sustainable development and a better understanding of landscape
dynamics, it is critical to recognize changes in land cover and land use over time
(Prabaharan et al., 2010). Change detection using various periods of satellite imagery aids
in the understanding of landscape dynamics (Rawat et al., 2015). The main purpose of
this study is to map rice crop area from Landsat 8 imageries over Pakistan using advanced
GIS and RS techniques.

3.1 Study Area

Pakistan is a South Asian country with direct access to the Arabian Sea and 1,046 km of
coastline (CIA, 2021). The population is estimated to exceed 225 million in 2021, making
it the fifth-most populous country in the world. Agriculture is the backbone of the country
economy. According to ILO data, 37% of total employment is in the agricultural sector.
However, 63% of the population live in rural areas, which suggests a much higher share
of people who depend on agricultural livelihoods (World Bank, 2019). Pakistan’s
topography is very diverse, including the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges in
the north, various plateaus in the center and west, the Indus River Plain, which spans
from north to south, and smaller desert areas in various parts of the country. The study
area lies at 23.5°–40° N and 60°–80° E. Due to landscape diversity in the country, different
weather and climatic patterns are experienced from north to south.

3.2 Methodology
Pakistan is covered by thirty-one Landsat footprints. Landsat images from 2010–2020
were collected from http://landsat.usgs.gov/. The data was used to extract multi-
temporal curves of the Landsat vegetation indices for rice land cover mapping. Cloud
coverage of the imageries is less than 10%. All the images were processed for
atmospheric and geometric correction. The satellite has 16 days’ temporal resolution and
30x30m spatial resolution. Three vegetation indices i.e. Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index (NDVI) (Tucker, 1979), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) (Alfredo
Huete et al., 2002; AR Huete et al., 1997), and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) (Xiao et
al., 2004) were calculated using surface reflectance (ρ) from the Blue(B), Red (R), NIR,
and SWIR bands using equation 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

𝑁𝐼𝑅 − 𝑅
𝑁𝐷𝑉𝐼 = … … … (1)
𝑁𝐼𝑅 + 𝑅
𝑁𝐼𝑅 − 𝑅
𝐸𝑉𝐼 = … … … (2)
𝑁𝐼𝑅 + 6𝑅 − 7.5𝐵 + 1

𝑁𝐼𝑅 − 𝑆𝑊𝐼𝑅
𝐿𝑆𝑊𝐼 = … … … (3)
𝑁𝐼𝑅 + 𝑆𝑊𝐼𝑅

Ground truth point were obtained from Google Earth. Three vegetation indices were then
extracted from multi-temporal Landsat imagery from 2011–2020 for the pixel where the
ground truth point was located. From late August to late September, forest NDVI
remained high (around 0.8). However, paddy rice NDVI fell below 0.8. Paddy rice had
smaller differences between EVI (NDVI) and LSWI. Thus, the rule-based decision trees
were deployed on LSWI, NDVI, and (NDVI + EVI)/2-LSWI to map the ripening paddy rice.

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Maximum likelihood supervised classification was also performed. Multi-temporal
images in one file were made from combining all the imageries. Accuracy assessment was
performed using error matrixes along with user accuracy, producer accuracy, overall
accuracy. The detailed methodology flowchart is given in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Methodology Flowchart

Tier 1 method which provide a default emission factor for specific sources, conditions,
country and regions was used for the estimation of CH4 from rice field. For rice cultivation
in South Asia, the emission factor is 0.85 kg CH4/ha/day. Model was generated using
ArcGIS 10.4.1 by giving the inputs emission factor, cultivation periods as Start of the
Season (SoS), End of the Season (EOS) and Harvested area as Rice area map to each and
every pixels of rice area maps in different temporal resolution for the purpose of getting
minimum and maximum emissions at different duration from Start of the season (SoS).
Equation 4 was used for the estimation of CH4 from the rice fields (IPCC, 2006).

𝐶𝐻4 𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 = ∑ 𝐸𝐹𝑖,𝑗,𝑘 × 𝑇𝑖,𝑗,𝑘 × 𝐴𝑖,𝑗,𝑘 × 10−6 … … … … (4)

𝑖,𝑗,𝑘
Where:
CH4 Rice = annual methane emissions from rice cultivation, Gg CH4 yr -1
EFijk = a daily emission factor for i, j, and k conditions, kg CH4 ha-1 day-1
Tijk = cultivation period of rice for i, j, and k conditions, day
Aijk = annual harvested area of rice for i, j, and k conditions, ha yr-1
i, j, and k = represent different ecosystems, water regimes, type and amount of organic
amendments, and other conditions under which CH4 emissions from rice may vary

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 3.3 Rice Map of Sindh and Punjab Province Pakistan
Figure 2 shows the spatial distribution of paddy rice over Sindh and Punjab province of
Pakistan. The rice map was obtained from the multi-temporal imageries of Landsat 8 for
the time period of 2010-2020. The maps were produced for Sindh, Central Punjab, North-
East Punjab and Southern Punjab. The area of rice crop of each of the region is shown in
Table 1.

Figure 2: Spatial distribution of rice crop over Sindh and Punjab Province of Pakistan
Source: Global Change Impact Studies Centre and Helvetas 2022

IPCC 2006 guideline from 2006 provide an equation for estimation of CH4 emissions from
rice (equation 4). The CH4 emissions was calculated based on the cultivation period (i.e.
110 days for Pakistan), crop area from Landsat and integrated to IPCC factor. The rate of
CH4 is shown in Table 1.

Table 2: Rice cropping area (ha) and methane emission from the filed based on IPCC
method

S.NO Region Area (Ha) Methane Emissions (Gg) CH4 (M Tonnes)

1 North-East Punjab 1125279.72 105.21 0.1052

2 Central Punjab 860423.56 80.45 0.0804
3 Sindh 644710.00 60.28 0.0603
4 Southern Punjab 254416.71 23.79 0.0238
Total 2884830.00 269.73 0.27

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 1.20 1.13

1.00
0.86

0.80
0.64
0.60

0.40
0.25

0.20 0.11 0.08 0.06

0.02
0.00
North-East Punjab Central Punjab Sindh Southren Punjab

Area (m Ha) CH4 (M Tonns)

Figure 3: Methane emission from rice fields in Punjab and Sindh

Regional description

Region Districts
North-East Punjab Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Chakwal, Jhelum,Sargodha, Mandi Bahuddin,
Hafizabad, Gujranwala,
Central Punjab Jhang,Chiniot, Faisalabad, Kasur, Nankana, Sheikhupura, Okara, Sahiwal,
Pakpattan
Sindh Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Sukkhar, Larkana, Nawabshah, Tando Allahyar,
Hyderabad, MirpurKhas
Southern Punjab Bhakkar, Layah, Khanewal, Multan, Bahawalnagar

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4 ASSESSMENT OF SUITABILITY AND LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING MRV SYSTEMS

This chapter briefly describes assessment of suitability and limitations of existing MRV
systems for large-scale mitigation interventions in the agriculture sector in Pakistan.

4.1 Overview of the Efforts on Developing and MRV System in Pakistan

Article 13 of the Paris Agreement established a framework of enhanced transparency
(ETF) to regularly measure the progress made by countries to strengthen the global
response to the threat of climate change. The purpose of the framework for transparency
of action is to provide a clear understanding of climate change action in the light of the
objective of the Convention as set out in its Article 2, including clarity and tracking of
progress towards achieving Parties' individual nationally determined contributions
under Article 4, and Parties' adaptation actions under Article 7, including good practices,
priorities, needs and gaps to inform the global stock-take under Article 14.

The aim is to build mutual trust between countries, enhance climate ambition and
rigorously monitor public mitigation policies.

At COP 24, the UNFCCC adopted the Modalities, Procedures and Guidelines (MPGs from
Decision 18/CMA.1) for implementing the Paris Agreement gathered in the "Paris
Rulebook".

Based on these requirements, each Party shall regularly provide:

• A national inventory report of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by
sinks of greenhouse gases.
• Information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving its
nationally determined contribution under Article 4.
• Each Party should also provide information related to climate change impacts and
adaptation under Article 7, as appropriate.
• Developing country Parties should provide information on financial, technology
transfer and capacity-building support needed and received under Articles 9, 10, 11.

The objective of the new international adopted framework is to enable the

implementation of mitigation, adaptation and support actions as well as their monitoring
over time. This monitoring will be reported on a regular basis as part of the BTR (Biennial
Transparency Report) which will replace the BUR (Biennial Updated report) by 2025. In
this context, the inventory of GHG emissions as well as the action monitoring indicators
are essential for the monitoring and confidence of the international community.

Within this framework, Pakistan is a signatory Party to the Paris Agreement, and its
Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) is the official governing representative of Pakistan for
the implementation and compliance of the reporting to the UNFCCC.

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The international timeline to set-up the ETF is presented below:

Figure 4: International timeline to set-up the ETF CGE: 2020

To develop a GHG inventory national system, a project was developed with the support
of GIZ Pakistan and CITEPA France to support Global Change Impact Studies Centre,
Ministry of Climate Change (leading the GHG Inventory compilation and NDC revision
process for Ministry of Climate Change, Government of Pakistan) with the following
Objectives:
A. Strengthen the national GHG inventory MRV (Measurement, Reporting &
Verification) System in Pakistan by developing a roadmap for its future setup into a
robust GHG inventory MRV system based on institutional and regulatory arrangements
integrating the federal and provincial departments, sectoral agencies organized for data
collection, alignment and reporting consistently with the Enhanced Transparency
Framework modalities, procedures, and guidelines.
B. Prepare the ground support and communication strategy for the awareness-
raising of climate-relevant data amongst data providers in Pakistan.
C. The development of country specific emission factors in each sector of GHG
Inventory and storing them in software and IT platform to enable GCISC to fulfil the
future needs of reporting.

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D. The conception and development of a software and IT platform enabling GCISC to
acquire/store and process the sectoral data required for national GHG-Inventory
compilation.
E. To develop longer and consistent country specific time series GHG inventories.

4.2 Contours of the National MRV system

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides the
foundation for the intergovernmental response to climate change and its impacts on
humanity and ecosystems. In order to collectively address climate change and achieve
the objective of the Convention and the purpose and goals of the Paris Agreement,
countries need to mobilize actions that maximize opportunities for low GHG emission and
climate-resilient development and minimize risks to financial returns, social cohesion,
and environmental protection.

The regular collection, analysis and use of reliable information on climate action and
support to reduce GHG emissions and increase resilience, and data on GHG emission
trends, both historical and projected, is essential for evidence-based decision-making and
information-sharing, which in turn build trust and understanding and promote
stakeholder engagement. This data collection and reporting activity forms a critical
component of what is commonly known as ’MRV’ under the Convention and has recently
been encapsulated by the term ’transparency’ under the Paris Agreement.

The transition from the existing MRV arrangements to the Enhanced Transparency
Framework (ETF) will introduce enhanced scope and depth of reporting for developing
countries, which underscores the importance of having strong sustainable institutional
arrangements in place. A continuous process of improvement, collection, processing,
analysis, compilation, reporting and review of data is likely to fully occupy a core team of
national experts throughout the two-year reporting cycles. In addition, the process will
require engagement with a broad range of stakeholders for the collection of data and the
use of outputs by decision makers.

Data to be reported according to the national GHG inventory following the Modalities,
Procedures, and Guidelines (MPGs) are:
- National circumstances and institutional arrangements;
- National inventory report of emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHGs;
- Information on methods and cross-cutting elements (e.g. information on the
category and gas, and the methodologies, emission factors and activity data used at
the most disaggregated level; description of key categories; recalculations;
uncertainty assessments; assessment of completeness; and QA/QC plan);
- Estimates of emissions and removals for all categories, gases and carbon pools
considered in the GHG inventory;
- Consistent annual time series.

4.3 Legal basis for GHG MRV system

Although a full legal analysis has not been performed for this project, it has been observed
that Pakistan currently lacks an appropriately detailed, comprehensive, and

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unambiguous framework legal basis for national GHG MRV. Therefore, it is recommended
for Pakistan to work towards adopting a single, dedicated legal act or directive on the
establishment and functioning of a national GHG inventory program, as the foundation of
a broader GHG MRV system. This legal act or directive should spell out in a single piece of
legislation provisions addressing:
- Formally establishing Pakistan’s national GHG inventory program;
- Stating the objective and purpose of the program;
- Appointing the single national entity responsible for the program;
- Regulating national inventory planning by identifying the other participating
entities in the national inventory program and distributing the roles and
responsibilities for national inventory preparation and management among them
and the single national entity;
- Introducing a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) plan and directing
participating entities to conduct their activities in line with this QA/QC plan
throughout national inventory development; and
- Setting reporting deadlines for internal to the Government of Pakistan and for
external submissions to the UNFCCC and other relevant bodies.
The national inventory legal act or directive should ensure consistency with the
applicable provisions of existing legal framework on national statistics and
environmental regulations. Legal provisions on QA/QC should address the following:
- Formally establishing a recognized GHG inventory QA/QC plan that provides
principles;
- A QA/QC manual of procedures based on and furthering these principles; and
- Directing the implementation of the QA/QC manual of procedures within the QA/QC
plan.
One of the recommended next steps for Pakistan would be the drafting of an initial
version of such a QA/QC plan and manual, as part of a broader national inventory
management and improvement plan, so that policy makers would have a concrete
example of what said legal act or directive would refer to. Additional findings and
recommendations on QA/QC are provided in the Quality management sub‐ section below.
It is also recommended for the legal act or directive on the national GHG inventory
program to include principles aiming at a continuous improvement of the performance
of the entities involved, under the coordination of the designated single national entity.
More specifically, it is recommended that a section of the legal act address national
inventory preparation including the following provisions:
- National GHG inventory preparation shall ensure the principles of transparency,
accuracy, time series consistency, comparability, and completeness (TACCC);
- National GHG inventory quality shall be achieved through application of a QA/QC
plan based on the principles and allocation of responsibilities stated in the legal act,
furthered by the procedures set in the QA/QC manual and annually implemented
through the QA/QC plan;

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- A yearly QA/QC plan, implementing the QA/QC manual, shall be adopted by the
single national entity;
- Long term sustainability shall be granted to the national GHG inventory program,
particularly by establishing a core group of experts acting under coordination of the
single national entity;
- Building Institutional memory shall be pursued by avoiding frequent staff turnover;
- Systematic trainings shall be ensured for national GHG inventory staff;
- The national GHG inventory shall be prepared and reported according to latest
applicable IPCC Guidelines and UNFCCC guidelines;
- Relevant authorities shall be ensured access to relevant data;
- The single national entity responsible for inventory preparation shall improve upon
the current and future national GHG inventory submission in response to
international (e.g., UNFCCC) technical analysis (i.e., review) comments and reports.
- Ensuring timely development of reports according to UNFCCC schedule (i.e., every
4 years for NCs, every 2 years for BURs and then BTRs);
- Conditions for any mandated formal government review and approval process,
including timing for that process;
- Designate the [Ministry of Environment] as responsible entity with focal point for
submitting reports to the UNFCCC Secretariat; and
- Whether and under what conditions the GHG inventory report and data shall be
made public.
The existing legal framework addressing climate change includes:
- Pakistan National Climate Change Policy, 2012;
- Pakistan Climate Change Act, 2017; and
- GCISC Act, 2013.
These acts do not present specific legal provisions regarding GHG MRV in keeping with
UNFCCC reporting guidelines or new Paris Agreement MPGs. Pakistan may refer, as an
example legislative framework, albeit for Annex I countries, to Regulation 525/2013/EU
(MMR), which establishes an EU monitoring and reporting mechanism for GHG emissions
and removals by sinks in keeping with UNFCCC reporting requirements. Additional legal
acts or directors should also be considered for other climate MRV components that
mirror, as appropriate, the general aspects of those for the national GHG inventory.

In summary, it is recommended that a proper legal analysis be conducted for Pakistan

that provides detailed model text and recommendations tailored for Pakistan’s legal
context for the establishment of a legal act or directive codifying GHG inventory and
broader GHG MRV system. Preferably, this analysis would be prepared through a
collaborative effort by an experienced Pakistani environmental or administrative lawyer
and an international legal expert on GHG MRV systems.

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4.4 Institutional arrangements
Institutional arrangements for GHG MRV are the organizational, management,
resourcing, and procedural processes for the regular estimation, compilation, and timely
reporting of GHG emissions and removals, including national GHG inventory reports.
These include the organizations and people involved, timelines, and tasks, in which these
activities are undertaken. Arrangements may be formal or informal. Formal agreements
typically cite requirements of each organization, and use legal, or written documentation
to formalize the agreement. Informal agreements typically define management
deliverables, tasks, or timing. Institutional arrangements also often are defined to include
the legal framework for GHG MRV; however, for this report the legal basis for GHG MRV
is addressed separately in the previous sub‐section.

Pakistan’s second National Communication (NC2) states that a “coherent GHG‐ Inventory
preparation system does not exist in the country”. It was confirmed that currently
Pakistan is lacking a well‐defined operational and governance structure for GHG MRV
activities. Numerous federal government bodies were identified as having a role in
meeting Pakistan’s reporting obligations to the UNFCCC and other domestic and
international environmental processes. However, there appears to be a problematic
degree of ambiguity regarding assigned duties and relationships between both existing
and new climate change related entities. Some of this ambiguity is likely a result of the
historical practice of first outsourcing GHG inventory and UNFCCC reporting work to
contractors and doing so on an episodic project basis, versus on a continuous government
programmatic basis

4.5 Solution requirements

It is recommended for Pakistan to work on developing the institutional arrangements on
a basis of the current UNFCCC reporting requirements, as well as the new MPGs under
the Paris Agreement. Specifically, current UNFCCC requirements reference:

- 2/CP.17, Annex III, para. 2(a) (UNFCCC BUR guidelines for non‐ Annex I Parties):
The scope of biennial update reports is to provide an update to the most recently
submitted national communication in the following areas: Information on national
circumstances and institutional arrangements relevant to the preparation of the
national communications on a continuous basis.
- 17/CP.8, Annex, para. 5: Non‐Annex I Parties may provide a description of existing
institutional arrangements relevant to the preparation of their national
communications on a continuous basis.
- 17/CP.8, Annex, para. 13: Non‐Annex I Parties are encouraged to describe
procedures and arrangements undertaken to collect and archive data for the
preparation of national GHG inventories, as well as efforts to make this a continuous
process, including information on the role of the institutions involved.

The current UNFCCC reporting guidelines encourage countries to develop institutional

arrangements and to describe the procedures for data collection and archiving in their
formal UNFCCC submissions. The Paris Agreement elaborates further requirements that
each Party should implement and maintain institutional, legal, and procedural
arrangements for developing the GHG inventory on a continuously and timely basis,
noting that these arrangements can vary by Party depending on their national

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circumstances and preferences, and change over time (18/CMA.1, annex, para. 18). In
particular, for the biennial transparency report due by end of 2024, Pakistan should
report on several factors. The following MRV structure has been proposed based on the
in-depth analysis of existing systems/policies/institutional structures to support the
proposed MRV system.

4.6 Proposed MRV Structure

The MRV setup is proposed to consist of a single national entity to act as supervisory
body. The federal MoCC is currently the coordinating entity and the national and
international focal point for the climate related activities with the Prime Minister’s
Committee on Climate Change, headed by Prime Minister of Pakistan, functions as the
Apex Body for key decisions and actions on climate change. Further, the Pakistan Climate
Change Act was passed in 2017 under which a Climate Change Council headed by Prime
Minister, with representation from all the federating units, professionals from research
and academia, and representation from civil society organizations has been formed. The
Climate Change Authority, the implementing arm, under the Climate Change Act is yet to
be established. There is a need to establish MRV system in the country as it allows
tracking progress towards climate change-related targets and steer mitigation actions so
that the targets can be achieved. MRV provides information about emission sources and
trends, helps companies to increase their energy efficiency and take decisions on where
to reduce their emissions. With the Paris Agreement, MRV system is gaining further
importance as it is the key elements to guarantee transparency, precision and
comparability on climate change information.

MRV pathways consist of the following three tracks:

• MRV of GHG Inventory
• MRV of Mitigation and Adaptation Policies
• MRV of Support

4.7 MRV of GHG inventory

The first track is concerned with GHG inventory, which is based on aggregate national
level data. This track is primarily concerned with gathering GHG data from the respective
units keeping activity data under each relevant ministry. Currently GCISC, on behalf of
MoCC, collects and arranges data from respective Ministries and departments in required
forms and prepares the inventories using IPCC guidelines.

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 National Entity
Ministry of Climate Change

National GHG Inventory Compiler

Global Change Impact Studies Centre

Food Security through

Industrial Sector Ministry of National Waste Management
Energy Sector through
through Ministry of Food Security and through local
Ministry of Energy
Industries provincial Forest governments
departments

Hydrocarbon Forest departments Capital Development

Pakistan Bureau of
Development institute of REDD++ Authority
Statistics
Pakistan (HDIP)
Space and Upper Provincial Municipal
Federal Bureau of
Oil and Gas regulatory Atmosphere Research waste management
Statistics
authority (OGRA) Commission departments
Provisional Bureau of
Provisional Energy Provincial Agriculture Waste management
Statistics
Departments departments companies

Figure 5: Existing institutional structure for GHG MRV in Pakistan

This arrangement is likely to continue. GCISC with the support of GIZ and CITEPA is in the
process of development and implementation of a MRV web platform (Monitoring,
Reporting, Verification) for monitoring GHG inventories. This platform will support the
compilation of the national GHG inventory according to Modalities, Procedures and
Guidelines (MPGs) as adopted in Decision 18/CMA.1 at COP-24 in Katowice. CITEPA
carries out the overall management of the project, the diagnosis of the existing situation,
the consultation of stakeholders through sectoral workshops, the definition of the
characteristics of the MRV platform, the training of future users. The IT development of
the platform is managed by Office International de l'Eau (OIEau) and funded by
Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The Centre is also in the process of formation of Technical Working Group and signing
the Letter of Agreement with the data providers for planning and institutionalization of
data provision process by developing a software. The Technical Support Working Group
for MRV (TS-WG) is to be established from a group of data providing agencies and
national experts to provide technical assistance and guidance to the coordinating entity,
Climate Change Reporting Unit, and the relevant ministries. The main role of this group
is to provide support to the coordinating entity regarding the design of data collection

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templates for GHG inventory, mitigation actions, and support and review the prepared
reports prior to submission to the QA-WG and UNFCCC.

A roadmap and a communication strategy for the awareness-raising of climate-relevant

data amongst data providers in Pakistan is also being prepared for establishing a robust
data management system and preparation of GHG inventories on regular basis.

4.8 MRV of Mitigation and Adaptation

The second track is the MRV of Mitigation and Adaptation. The MoCC and The Technical
Working Group will be responsible to provide country specific vision and strategies for
this track. Each organization involved in collecting GHG emissions data would have an
MRV unit, reporting for quantified actual GHG reductions after implementation of
mitigation actions. This track will include the adaptation policies and actions which
would be implemented across all the relevant organizations. Each organization will
submit an Annual Report directly to the coordinating entity viz. MoCC providing
information about the status of implementation mitigation and adaptation actions.
Technical support working group will provide technical support to in implementing key
progress indicators, MRV plans and GHG estimation methodologies.

Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerability country to climatic risks as per German Watch
and is in high need of adaptation support from international community. However,
limited capacity in showcasing effectiveness of adaptation actions and future adaptation
needs hinders Pakistan in accessing bilateral and international funding on climate change
adaptation. Therefore, developing an adaptation inventory and building a robust M&E
system for adaptation actions is very important and also in line with the
recommendations of UNFCCC’s Least Developed Countries Expert Group’s NAP Technical
Guidelines that emphasizes on Parties to monitor progress and effectiveness towards the
goals and objectives of their National Adaptation Plans (NAP) process. Such a system can
eventually contribute to reporting Pakistan’s contributions to the UNFCCC, including
towards the global goal on adaptation defined under the Paris Agreement. It can also help
Pakistan report on its achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in
particular SDG 13 on Climate Action, and the Sendai Framework’s targets and indicators.
At the same time, this system will also support Pakistan in demonstrating the
effectiveness and efficiency of the resources allocated to climate change adaptation to
donors and will allow to fetch more climate funding and financial support to build its
resilience to climate change.

In addition to GHG inventory and MRV system, tracking adaptation actions is another
requirement of MPG chapter IV which requires to submit the progress on adaptation
actions under Article 7 of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Pakistan has very
limited capacity and resources in monitoring and evaluating adaptation actions at the
national level. Further, it does not have any concrete mechanism and IT platform for M&E
of adaptation actions. Against that background the GCISC, the representative organization
from MoCC on NDCs with the support of GIZ and CITEPA is working on the development
of an adaptation tracking framework and strengthening its capacities in
assessing/improving the measurement of adaptation progress and getting funding for
adaptation and resilience.

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4.9 MRV of Support
The third track is the MRV of support. MoCC in collaboration with the Planning
Commission of Pakistan and MoF is determining the domestic and international sources
for financing different climate change related activities. All the organizations that receive
climate support are required to determine the sources of finance for their climate related
activities and report them to the national coordinating entity (Ministry of Climate Change,
Pakistan).

4.10 Data Providers

4.10.1 GHG inventory (Track 1)

GCISC is proposed as the data hub to which the GHG inventory information flows from
the relevant ministries. It will be obligatory for all ministries/departments to submit
annual data to GCISC through a quality control system. All GHG Inventory data will be
properly validated.

4.10.2 Mitigation and Adaptation Actions/Policies (Track 2)

The relevant ministries and other entities implementing mitigation and adaptation
programs will act as data providers and responsible to monitor the progress of such
actions. Universities and research centers have an important role to play in supporting
the ministries of relevant data collection and for monitoring the actions. The templates
and methodologies to be used by these entities involved are proposed to be prepared by
Technical Support Working Group. Each ministerial MRV unit will generate reports on
their respective mitigation programs in line with the national strategies issued by the
Planning Commission of Pakistan and will communicate directly to MoCC as the National
Coordinating Body.

4.10.3 Support Received (Track 3)

Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Industries are proposed as data providers to MoCC
on the support received. This entails categorizing climate change projects receiving
climate finance and indicating the type of funding received in the system by the
concerned entity.

4.10.4 Key components of Institutional Arrangements

Institutional arrangements can be organized around following five separate components:
1. Stakeholder engagements
2. Organizational mandates
3. Expertise
4. Data flows
5. System and Tools

4.10.5 Stakeholder engagements

Strong stakeholder engagement ensures that the transparency system reaches a broad
range of stakeholders, including those from federal government, provincial government,
the private sector, academia, NGOs, the media and the public, so that data can be gathered
from the most reliable and relevant sources and the outputs can inform their decision-
making processes. Engagement should include stakeholders involved in the

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implementation of action, as well as stakeholders who provide data and advice on data
interpretation.

4.10.6 Organizational mandates:

Suitable, clear organizational mandates guarantee the availability of experts, flow of data,
efficient systems and tools, and sufficient stakeholder engagement to deliver useful
insights to decision makers and fulfill regular national reporting obligations under the
Convention and the Paris Agreement.

Expertise: Having a strong team of national professionals ensures that expert

resources are available to regularly generate technical outputs that inform decision
makers and wider audiences for upcoming challenges, and the country’s progress and
ambitions. The team will be responsible for knowledge retention and transfer between
expert roles and training of junior level of professionals.

Data Flows: Well-functioning data flows ensure that data needed would help
understand the challenges faced in reducing GHG emissions, climate-related risks, and
vulnerabilities.

Coordination, system and tools: Effective coordination system and tools ensure that
the team of national experts are able to access data, manage data flow, perform quality
assurance and control and produce timely quality outputs that would improve over time.
They will also facilitate the engagement of a wide range of stakeholders responsible for
providing data and making use of the outputs.

Key components of institutional arrangements are given in Figure 6.

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 Stakeholders Groups
Organizational
Mandates
Roles and Responsibiliites

Compilation and
coordination

Expertise Sector Expertise

Reporting

Data Sets
Data Flows
Data Providers

Institutional Data Collection and

Arrangements Updates

Data Analysis, Data Bases

abd Modeling

Systems and Quality Mangement Tools

Tools
Reporting

Procedures, Guidelines and

Training

Communicating to Decision
Makers

Websites and Data

Visualizaiton
Stakeholders
Engagement Education Engagement

Events and Activities

Figure 6: Key Components of Institutional Arrangements

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4.11 Conclusions
The development of the proposed MRV system will help Pakistan meet its commitment
under the Paris agreement. The report has made a comprehensive analysis of the
structures, institutions, policies related to rice MRV in Pakistan. Results were shared in
stakeholder consultations to propose a broader GHG MRV system to establish historical
baselines, validate data quality, analysis of mitigation policies implementation, and
reporting compliance. An overarching objective for mitigation MRV is to ensure that
estimates are consistent and captured within the national inventory, BTR reporting, and
feed into the Paris Agreement’s global stock take. Therefore, a broader GHG MRV system,
RISQ—a web platform for the compilation of the national MRV system database—has
been developed. It will be used by entering into agreements with the key data providing
national agencies, plans for which have been detailed in the preceding chapters of the
report. The proposed system will help decision makers at the macro as well as micro
levels of government and other relevant sectors to devise evidence backed strategies that
will help mitigate and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change.

The system will help develop actionable strategies that will reinforce Pakistan’s
commitments to tackling climate change and generate national as well as global impact.

Figure 7: Platform for GHG-I and M&E Tool for Adaptation Tracking

4.12 Recommendations for MRV for RICE

Under the project UNEP-CCAC-HELVETAS a dedicated MRV system is to be setup.
Following Necessary data requirements are:

- Total area cultivated

- Area under Continuously flooded
- Area under intermittent flooding
- Area dry sowing
- Time of sowing
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 - Variety wise area
- Time, amount and mode of irrigation
- Time, type, amount and mode of fertilizer applied
- Manure applied if any
- Time, amount, type and mode of insecticide and weedicide applied.
- Area under stubble burning
- Govt recommendations on rice cultivation
- Residual moisture content at harvesting
- Daily weather data (Temp, Precipitation, ET)

Once the data acquisition process on the said parameters are mainstreamed in
agricultural statistics collecting regimes of relevant federal and provincial organizations,
the GHG-I software on the dedicated MRV for rice platform will be able to calculate the
GHG emissions and based on the standard vs applied mitigation techniques emissions
reductions (methane) will be calculated and reported. Both platforms are envisioned to
be functional by mid-2023.

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5 NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR AN MRV SYSTEM FOR LOW EMISSIONS RICE
ACTIVITIES

Pakistan’s updated NDC document highlights efforts and actions in responding to climate
change in terms of building resilience of farming systems as well as the curtailing GHG
emissions. Paddy sector is a key sector in this regard. At the margins of COP26 Pakistan
also signed the Methane pledge which aims at reducing Methane emissions by 30% by
2030. In the backdrop of this well-developed MRV systems well aligned with the recently
agreed MPGs and Enhanced Transparency Framework guidelines are direly needed. The
country is keen to have NDC implementation frame works not only at Federal/ national
abut also at sub-national levels.

5.1 Existing Data

As a traditional setup data is pooled by crop reporting agriculture departments at
provincial levels and is transmitted to Federal Bureau of Statistics through Ministry of
National Food Security and Research. At present data on area harvested and production
on district basis is provided in the yearly Agricultural Statistics Report.

Figure 8: Schematic Diagram of Data Collection on Agriculture in Pakistan

5.2 New Data

New data needs under the 2 technological transformations (DSR and AWD) have been
identified and shared with the provincial agricultural departments. From this year the
data on the newly identified parameters as specified in Section 4.12 will be collected and
reported to GCISC as a central hub of agriculture based MRV in Pakistan.

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5.3 Emission Calculations and Methodology
IPCC 2006 Tier 1 guidelines with 2019 Refinement will be used initially to estimate
methane emissions. Meantime the work on the development of Tier 2 emission factors
will be initiated involving NARC’s Rice programme and Provincial Agricultural Research
Institutions. The impact of technological interventions will be determined by calculating
the difference from the baseline. IRRI’s software /tool – SECTOR (Source -Selective and
Emission Adjusted Greenhouse Gas Calculator for Rice Cropland) will be used for data
management and calculation of methane emissions from rice.

5.4 Data responsibility and capacities

MoCC has the mandate to hold national MRV system and house it withing its relevant
technical arm, in case of agriculture, GCISC. The data flow will take place from the
provinces to the MoCC. This, however, will need to be a two-way process. Although the
provinces have data sharing responsibility, they also have full rights to the MRV data and
results after data processing. At the same time, both GCISC and provinces are in need for
capacity building on this subject so that the system is refined with time and more
responsibilities are delegated to the provinces. This is important since the provinces’
readiness needs to be enhanced for implementation of NAMA / NAPA intervention
packages through decentralized or joint implementation modalities to increase chances
for finances in future.

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6 MRV TEMPLATES AND PROTOCOLS FOR COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENTATION
OF RICE NAMAS

Effective and smooth stakeholder engagement is considered one of the key success
factors for the rice MRV project. Without active participation and contributions from
relevant stakeholders in the crop sector, the project will not be able to have the access to
accurate and reliable data and information, nor successfully develop a useful and
comprehensive roadmap. Also, without stakeholders’ buy-in, the roadmap will not be
adopted and implemented.

The figure below shows the relevant stakeholders whose mandates are related to the
subject area in tracking and reporting methane emissions, mitigation, and adaptation
actions in the rice crop sector of Pakistan. Each province of Pakistan has a Bureau of
Statistics department, that collects crop growth, area, and production data at the district
level and is submitted to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (Federal) for yearly reporting.
Global Change Impact Studies Centre is the lead research organization working under the
Ministry of Climate Change Islamabad and is responsible for reporting climate actions,
and preparation of BUR, NC and GHG inventory.

Clear institutional arrangements will help enable the country's national and sectoral
policies to be operationalized for the program to achieve policy and program objectives,
e.g., quality, transparency, consistency, and efficiency. It also enables program resources
to be efficiently deployed, e.g., data processing, quality management and continuous
improvement. Other issues bordering the rice MRV cycle include:

• MRV program institutionalization (internal)

• Administrator management responsibilities
• Program capacities, e.g. system and resources
• Government agencies, e.g. single vs. multi-agency
• Legislation and regulations, e.g., existing or new
• Tracking and enforcement are clarified under the institutional arrangement.

Institutional arrangements for mandatory GHG MRV program further provide a legal
basis for reporting, including enforcement, support for efficient and effective program
operation, e.g. resources and systems, ensure the quality of the inventory data including
the collection, processing, communication, and detailed record-keeping of data and
information supporting the program. The arrangements are also about the
institutionalization of the regular process of inventory reporting, quality management,
and continuous improvement.

Many actors and stakeholders were identified that will be involved with and/or
interested in rice MRV inventory inputs, processes, and outputs. Key actors and
stakeholder types are presented in the Figure below. Understanding the interests,
contributions and involvement of these actors and stakeholders helped in the design
process and will further facilitate the establishment of a comprehensive national rice
MRV inventory system for long periods of time.

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The structure proposes that GCISC will act as the national focal point of the process and
therefore play the coordinating role needed to facilitate and manage the inventory cycle.

Figure 9: Data flow for MRV system

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7 DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL MRV PLATFORM & ITS ANCHORAGE

Digital MRV Rice platform will enable Pakistan to establish the state of play of its national
MRV Rice system. This will include the analysis of the different items: the roles of the
different stakeholders; consistency with IPCC inventory guidelines; data sharing between
the different stakeholders, documentation and archiving; identification of gaps and
capacity building needs; national regulation needs, and Climate Communication Strategy
and Stakeholder consultation needs to maintain such a new MRV Rice platform.

National MRV Rice platform will focus on IT aspects of the project, to design and develop
an MRV web-based interactive IT system for the national GHG inventory following
properties defined in the terms of reference: especially, web-based platform, database
interoperability to collect Excel sectoral and/or territorial data files, consistencies with
national and international requirements, e.g. IPCC 2006 inventory guidelines, logging and
audit support, data warehouse capability to share inventory related information / data,
aggregation of data as support to reporting process in accordance to UNFCCC
requirements.

MRV Rice platform shows the following properties:

- A full web solution compliant to TCP/IP, HTTPS, HTML, CSS standards and flexible
in user friendly interfaces,
- A very flexible and modular content management,
- Management of very fine user rights.
- Multilingual management,
- Implementation from the administration interface of the research system,
production of data visualization.
- Simple implementation of content and data import and export systems,
- Very rich administration interface allowing to perform many actions,
- Widely used tool for website development and used by a very large developer
community around the world,
- Log of events and errors in the system (for a better security and monitoring).

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