Brussels, Belgium – At the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December this year, the UN aims to conclude talks over a new global climate change agreement. An essential part of this process is the global agreement that each country will announce the climate actions they intend to undertake to contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions and hold the increase of temperature globally to two degrees.
The French authorities through France Expertise, initiated a support facility for 27 mostly French-speaking countries in Africa that have expressed need for assistance with the development of their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC). Out of the 27, MWH Global supported 10 countries in their process to develop an INDC.
MWH helped Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Comoros, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and Kiribati in the entire process of creation of the INDC, in accordance with the Lima decision, with the goal to be ready for submission to the UNFCCC by the 1st of October. The formulation of an INDC implies to develop an in-country diagnosis on greenhouse gas (GHG) existing data, an understanding of mitigation potentials, GHG projections (e.g. baseline and policy scenarios), as well as an assessment of support needs and potential adaptation measures. Participation by a commissioning process involving institutional partners, private sector and civil society will result in both the fostering of the national ownership of the process and the validation of a strategy, which will be the basis for the drafting of INDCs for each country, constituting the mitigation and adaptation objectives on which the countries are committed internationally. Activities carried out will include an assessment of the specific needs of the country (based on the available data on climate change and policies, plans and strategies already in place) and assistance with the formulation of preventative and mitigation measures to slow down the progression and reduce effects of climate change. MWH will further assist the 10 Least Developed Countries and Small Islands Developing States in the validation process and the formalization of the INDC for submission to the UNFCCC.
Francisco-Javier Ortiz de Zuniga, Project Manager at MWH Global in Brussels: “INDCs are a new and technically complex process set up by the UNFCCC in view of COP21. The formulation of the INDCs has been an intense exercise with many obstacles surpassed and lessons learned along the way. With an average of ten outputs delivered per week for all countries, managing over 60 technical experts and simultaneously organizing workshops and events in all these different locations was indeed a challenge. Nonetheless, we are proud to have been up to the level of expectations of our client and national counterparts, delivering high quality outputs at all stages of project lifecycle.”
Christophe Leroy, Operations Director at MWH Global in Brussels: “The INDCs are the backbone of the UNFCCC climate change agreement, the intended contributions will determine for a large part whether the worldwide agreement for climate change reduction can be finalised. We are excited to be able to support these countries with the formulation of their intentions, a process of high importance both politically and economically. We are proud to have been able to showcase our expertise to support the countries and our client France Expertise in achieving tangible results in a short time frame.”
