The demand for environmental, climate change and disaster statistics is increasing, both in the context of international agreements, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Agreement, and at the national level. National-level demand is linked to the preparation of reports to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), plans and programmes related to development and other specific areas, national adaptation plans and climate change policies.

With the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) introduced an enhanced transparency framework to foster transparency in data generation. In addition, during the tenth meeting of the Expert Group on Environment Statistics, the United Nations Statistics Division, UNFCCC and other key partners agreed to continue collaborating on the Together4Transparency approach promoted by UNFCCC. This collaboration seeks to improve the understanding of the role of national statistical offices and the national statistical system in climate change reporting through the promotion and implementation of the Global Set of Climate Change Statistics and Indicators and capacity-building, more informed political decision-making based on official statistics, trust-building at the international level and compliance with international obligations.