The benefit of having 25 countries in a programme that spans the globe and represents a range of economic standing from least developed to emerging economies is the incredible amount of south-south learning that can be generated. This was evidenced at the Low-Emission Capacity Building (LECB) Programme’s fourth annual global meeting, which was held in Brussels from 14-16 October 2014.

The meeting served dual purposes: first, to highlight national achievements and discuss synergies with emerging priorities, such as intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs); second, to respond to country demand for training on tools, resources, and approaches for measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems. Download the agenda and presentations here.

Over 70 participants attended from 23 LECB countries, 15 organizations (including the UNFCCC Secretariat, the International Partnership on Mitigation and MRV, the World Resources Institute (WRI), UNEP-DTU Partnership, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and the Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) Global Partnership), and the Programme’s three donors – the European Commission, Germany and Australia.

The six-year, US$40 million UNDP LECB Programme was launched in January 2011 to provide technical assistance to 25 developing countries to develop public sector capacities to formulate LEDS and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), along with the underlying MRV and national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory systems. Another key work area is engagement of the private sector and industries in mitigation action planning and investments.

Learning by doing (and sharing)

The first day of the Brussels meeting was used to highlight national achievements emerging from LECB countries. These ranged from the presentation of energy and solid waste NAMAs (from Ecuador and Kenya respectively) to the ways in which Lebanon and Viet Nam are engaging the private sector in GHG reporting (broadly in the case of Lebanon and with a focus on the fertilizer and steel industries in Vietnam). Costa Rica, Ghana, and Colombia presented on various aspects of MRV – ranging from the pilot MRV for a livestock NAMA in Costa Rica, to the launch of a national GHG inventory database in Ghana, to an MRV database to support Colombia’s eight sectoral LEDS.

A panel discussion considered how national LECB projects can contribute with technical insights to the development of INDCs, which are an emerging strategic priority in the climate change negotiations. The Programme benefited from Artur Runge-Metzger, Director, DG-CLIMA, European Commission, and co-chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), as the facilitator for this discussion, which sought perspectives from UNDP, WRI, Egypt and Mexico, as well as the plenary.

Among the emerging themes that arose on day one were the importance of:

• Sharing the innovative actions and successful approaches being used. In particular, many developing countries are taking pragmatic, incremental approaches to implement needed regulatory and information barriers (e.g. beginning with Decisions or Orders that do not require full Cabinet approval).
• Ensuring national ownership of mitigation actions beyond the climate change practitioner community. Although inter-Ministerial coordination is time-consuming, it was noted that engagement of key line Ministries was fundamental for creating ownership of LEDS, NAMAs and MRV systems. Often, the national LECB projects are a driving force in-country for coordinating a range of mitigation actions.
• Understanding the specific interests of the private sector with respect to mitigation actions and data collection processes that can support implementation of such actions. Data collection, in particular, requires building of trust and acknowledgement of the specific concerns of the private sector with respect to time and cost.
• The development of NAMAs and LEDS can provide significant inputs to INDCs. The intergovernmental processes and results generated through relevant initiatives, such as the LECB Programme, are an effective vehicle to foster discussions on mitigation priorities.

MRV – creating a sound foundation for assessing our response to climate change

Days 2 and 3 of the meeting focused on the design and implementation of MRV systems – both at the NAMA and the national level – as well as how to incorporate sustainable development considerations. Chile and the Philippines shared their approaches to designing comprehensive MRV frameworks that are specifically addressing government needs.

Among the emerging themes that arose on days two and three were:

• Sustainable economic growth and other co-benefits are primary drivers of mitigation actions in developing countries. MRV systems should recognize and capture these indicators that are key to obtaining political commitment.
• For most countries, the aim in the short term should be to ensure that different MRV systems (i.e., at national, sector and/or NAMA levels) can inform one other. Over the longer-term, the goal should be to integrate systems (and associated data).
• MRV should be considered in the early stages of design of mitigation actions. This would allow countries to determine the level of effort required in terms of data collection and assistance (financial and technical) to support the MRV systems.
• Several countries are designing information support systems (i.e., IT and database systems) to archive MRV and national GHG inventory data. There is high interest in the lessons being learned.
• Many countries have not yet built in quality assurance/quality control measures to their MRV system designs. There is a need for further technical guidance on QA/QC and verification.