4 October 2012: The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) hosted an international workshop on financing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to discuss key issues, share experiences and provide practical insights for climate negotiators and financing institutions.
The “Helsinki workshop,” which took place on 4 October 2012, in Helsinki, Finland, identified and discussed key issues on financing NAMA implementation in developing countries, including on capacity and institution building, preparing and implementing NAMAs and mobilizing financial mechanisms. Presentations focused on, inter alia: NAMAs in negotiations and in practice; financing for NAMAs, including new market mechanisms and linkages with long-term climate finance; and measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) systems. Participants from Peru and Viet Nam, two countries that are part of the Nordic Partnership Initiative (NPI), shared their experience in on-going NAMA financing initiatives in the solid waste management and cement manufacturing systems, respectively.
Participants debated whether to include NAMAs in discussions on the new market based mechanism, with some advocating pilot approches and others preferring not to include NAMAs in discussions on new mechanisms. On MRV-systems, participants recognized a robust system as a smart investment but noted the potential for differing ambition levels among sectors. Developing country participants said limited capacity and finance represent barriers to rigorous MRV-systems. The proceedings also note that participants recognized that no definition of NAMAs exists but expressed different views on whether standardization was necessary.
Over 50 participants from 13 countries attended the NEFCO workshop, which was organized with the Nordic Council of Ministers and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Bilateral Financial Institutions Climate Change Working Group (BFI CCWG). The present members of the UNEP BFI CCWG are: the Agence Française de Développement (AFD); the European Investment Bank (EIB); Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); Entwicklungsbank – Development Bank of Germany (KfW); NEFCO; and UNEP. [NEFCO Press Release] [Workshop Proceedings]