Hagåtña, Guam: The Guam Office of Public Accountability (OPA) has released the flash report of the ClimateScanner© assessment of the Government of Guam’s (GovGuam) actions related to climate change. Our objective was to report the results of the assessment, and the scope of the assessment is from the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015 through August 2024.

The ClimateScanner© Global Assessment is a priority project of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), currently chaired by the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) Brazil, the Federal Court of Accounts. ClimateScanner© is an initiative in which member SAIs participate in an assessment of their respective governments’ actions related to climate change. As the SAI for Guam, the OPA was invited to participate in this initiative to assess GovGuam’s actions towards climate change.

Government of Guam ClimateScanner© Assessment Results

There were 66 items for assessment. Results show that of the 66 items, GovGuam was rated at Advanced Implementation for 49 items, Intermediate Implementation for six items, and Early Implementation for five items. Six items were not applicable to GovGuam (explained in the Finance Axis section of this report).

Conclusion and Recommendations

This is the first-ever assessment of GovGuam’s action for climate change. These results will be consolidated with results from other participating member SAIs and presented to the Conference of Parties 29 at the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in November 2024. The assessment did not evaluate for the effectiveness of GovGuam’s climate change actions. It is OPA’s observation that improvements can be made on the transparency of GovGuam’s efforts in addressing climate change. We recommend for GovGuam to establish an overarching law or a legal or regulatory framework on climate change that would include reporting requirements and the centralization of GovGuam’s climate change action to increase public awareness, stakeholder engagement, and monitor progress.

GovGuam officials generally agreed with our conclusion and recommendation. They welcome a full performance audit on GovGuam’s effectiveness in addressing climate change action be conducted by OPA. An environmental performance audit will be considered as part of the Annual Audit Work Plan.

“I am very pleased that we participated in this global assessment, because now the rest of the world can see that Guam has been actively pursuing climate change action. I want to thank the government of Guam officials who provided evidence and most of the information that was needed to complete this assessment,” says Public Auditor Benjamin J.F. Cruz. “These results will guide the Office of Public Accountability with environmental performance audit projects for effectiveness, efficiency, and equity in climate change action.”

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 For more information, please contact Selina Onedera-Salas at (671) 475-0390 ext. 207 or at sonederasalas@ugamopa.com.

PDF of press release

You can also download the flash report from www.opaguam.org.