Eight stages, asked of every applicable commitment in every jurisdiction. The model is deliberately broader than any single benchmark built from it.
Stage 04 · Budget / resources
What was committed, from which source, in which budget lines?
What would establish it
Appropriation law, budget book, donor agreement, programme allocation
Applicable commitment / responsibility
Which climate objective applies here, and who is responsible for it?
NDC, adaptation plan, sectoral policy, state climate policy, statutory duty
Authority
Does the responsible body have the legal and administrative power to act?
Enabling law, executive order, gazetted mandate, constitutional allocation
Institution
Which agency, unit or office actually holds the function?
Organogram, establishment instrument, staffing record, coordination arrangement
Budget / resources
What was committed, from which source, in which budget lines?
Appropriation law, budget book, donor agreement, programme allocation
Execution
What was actually released, procured and spent?
Budget performance report, audited accounts, procurement record, disbursement
Delivery
What was physically or institutionally delivered, where, and by whom?
Completion certificate, commissioning record, project register, monitoring report
Outcomes
What changed for people, systems or risk as a result?
Beneficiary data, service coverage, hazard exposure, resilience metrics
Measurement / target performance
Was the result measured against a baseline and a target, and is it reportable?
MRV record, GHG inventory, target register, national reporting submission
Asked at every stage
- Who?
- State / subnational · National / federal · Local · Donor / development programme · Private · Shared
- Where?
- Jurisdiction · Project geography · Affected population
- Who paid?
- Domestic public · National public · External public · Private · Blended / shared
- Who benefited?
- Where relevant to the intervention
- What national objective?
- NDC · Adaptation plan · Sectoral policy · Other applicable national framework
- What evidence?
- Source · Date · Provenance · Confidence / verification status
Kept distinct
Five words the framework refuses to use interchangeably
The framework treats these five words as separate questions, not synonyms.
- O01
Observability
Whether a public record exists that allows a stage of implementation to be independently established.
- C02
Capability
Whether the institutions, authority, finance systems and measurement arrangements needed to implement are in place.
- I03
Implementation
Whether resources were executed and interventions delivered.
- O04
Outcome
Whether delivery changed exposure, services or conditions for people and systems.
- I05
Impact
Whether outcomes contributed to a national or global climate objective, attributably and measurably.
Evidence architecture
Six rules keep every finding traceable, attributable and comparable.
- 01
Evidence architecture
Evidence architecture
Every claim is tied to a dated document from an identifiable institution.
- 02
Provenance
Provenance
Each document carries its source, date, retrieval channel and content hash.
- 03
Missingness
Missingness
When no public record is found, the absence is coded — never scored as zero.
- 04
Attribution
Attribution
Actors and sources of finance are logged separately from the jurisdiction assessed.
- 05
Longitudinal tracking
Longitudinal tracking
Fixed, dated observation periods let the same system be observed again with the same rules.
- 06
Correction and version control
Correction and version control
Methodology and data releases are numbered; corrections are logged and adjudicated.
Current benchmark methodology
The first national application uses a ten-indicator benchmark.
Policy & Institutions
40%
P1: Climate policy / strategy quality · P2: Climate legal authority · P3: Functional climate institution
Finance & Spending
30%
S4: Budget & resources committed · S5: Execution & spending · S6: Delivery
Implementation & Outcomes
30%
O7: Outcomes · O8: Measurement · O9: Target performance · O10: Reporting
- The benchmark is one analytical summary of a much larger evidence record.
- Comparative values must be read together with evidence coverage and institutional context.
- The benchmark does not measure total climate impact or total government effort.
- Absence of public evidence is recorded with a controlled missingness code. It is not scored as zero and it is not proof of inaction.
- Methodology versions are governed, numbered and archived. A change in method is never applied silently to a published release.
Corrections / errata
How a published release changes
A release is frozen when published. New evidence, disputes and errors are logged, adjudicated against the written evidence protocol, and applied in a numbered subsequent release with a rationale. Nothing in a published release changes silently.
Evidence dated after a release's observation cut-off enters the next observation period. A submission is a request for adjudication; it does not guarantee a change to any result.
No corrections logged.