Regional Dialogue on NDC Implementation hosted by Tunisia
The implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) was the focus of a regional meeting attended by over 120 participants from more than 40 African countries meeting on 5-7 September in Tunisia. The dialogue hosted by the Government of Tunisia and co-organized with support from UNDP, UNEP and the UNFCCC, is part of a series of such events that began in 2014 to support countries in preparing their INDCs ahead of COP21, and will now continue into 2017 focusing on NDC implementation under the Paris Agreement.
The forum highlighted how many African countries are making considerable progress in preparing for their NDC implementation, whether through developing national implementation plans that prioritize specific sectoral climate actions or by designing appropriate institutional arrangements and coordination mechanisms. Others are ALSO focusing on reorienting investments toward climate actions and designing monitoring systems to track progress of their NDC goals. Countries attending the dialogue underscored the need to build on existing efforts –as well as experiences in preparing NDCs – when undertaking these processes. It was also stressed that the NDC implementation process must be interlinked with the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which can deliver both adaptation and mitigation in the African region.
Political momentum stemming from the Paris Agreement must be kept alive at the national in moving toward NDC implementation. A key factor in doing so will be effectively engaging stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society, local government and ministries not traditionally associated with environmental issues. In preparing for the Tunisia dialogue, organizers made a deliberate effort to encourage the participation of sectoral line ministries and ministries of finance and planning, in addition to environment officials. The variety of perspectives resulted in impressively high-quality discussions during the dialogue.
The need for increased involvement of finance ministries, the private sector and international funders was emphasized by several parties. Funding for NDC implementation must be considered early and comprehensively, which will require conscious efforts to involve all these key stakeholders including bilateral donors, multilateral funds and investment banks as needed. Strategies for mobilizing resources from national budgets, private investors and international sources can be considered in the context of developing NDC implementation plans. One fundamental component of this process for many countries will be assessing which NDC components will be implemented “unconditionally” using domestic resources and which will be conditional upon external support.