Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) are climate programmes that reduce emissions in developing countries, prepared under the auspices of a national governmental initiative. They can be policies directed at transformational change within an economic sector, or actions across sectors for a broader national focus. NAMAs are supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity building. They are aimed at achieving a reduction in emissions relative to “business as usual” scenarios. Although NAMAs are not a new concept, there is renewed interest post-Paris in using NAMAs as a vehicle to drive the implementation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or to convert the NAMAs into on-the-ground actions to combat climate change.

On 7–8 June 2016, NEFCO hosted an international expert event on the subject of facilitating access to climate finance for NAMA implementation to drive the implementation of NDCs. The meeting was organised in association with the UNFCCC Secretariat on behalf of the NAMA Partnership. The objectives of the meeting were to exchange experiences from the global community of practice in NAMAs and provide practical insights for donors, financing institutions and other stakeholders working with these programmes. According to the NAMA database, over 160 are under development, of which ten are under some stage of implementation. The event attracted participants from 23 different countries and organisations, including donors, implementing agencies, research institutions and private sector actors. This article highlights some of the key messages emerging from this meeting.

NDCs represent the “goal or vision” whereas NAMAs represent the “means of achieving this goal or vision.” Participants expressed the belief that using the term NAMA is still helpful in promoting a holistic and comprehensive approach to developing climate mitigation programmes and bringing stakeholders to the table. They called on countries, institutions and the UNFCCC to continue to promote NAMA development as an important tool for achieving NDC implementation.

Experience to date has shown that in order to achieve transformational impacts, NAMAs should address the following three pillars, typically in combination:

1. Policy and/or institutional reforms to address barriers to low-carbon projects, to make these the preferred development pathway and ensure the sustainability of project implementations at scale;

2. Financial mechanisms to combine various sources of finance for NAMA implementation and address existing financial barriers to private sector investment;

3. Project pipeline development to ensure that NAMAs actually lead to low-carbon projects being implemented.

There is a need for combining financial instruments to leverage and where appropriate, to blend grant financing, with concessional loans, guarantees, and/or equity instruments. Global examples abound. However, precious few have begun the implementation stage or proceeded to the stage where they could be funded.

Early experience has shown that effective coordination of technical support at the national level to facilitate NAMA implementation is a critical success factor. Appropriate organisational structures are needed in host countries to deliver NAMA implementation. In particular, national financial institutions and the private sector are often overlooked. These actors should be considered carefully in NAMA design.

Common approaches to identify and assess transformational impacts of NAMAs should enable knowledge sharing and collaboration. However, there is a need to allow for flexibility and diversity in approaches among donors. Provided there is a high level of communication and learning among donors, competing approaches towards a similar goal may actually enhance the potential for donors to incentivize and support transformational impacts within developing countries.

Skilfully articulated, NAMAs can offer the opportunity to create a pipeline of bankable, low-carbon projects through policy reforms and financial support. Moreover, the inclusion of the project development component as part of the NAMA can help focus attention on all the necessary activities to actually achieve low-carbon development. However, it should be recognised that NAMA development is a multi-year and multi-stage process that requires a champion to carry the project through the development stages. The implementation of regulatory and associated institutional reforms can take time.

The findings from the workshop are available here.