The government of Zimbabwe is working towards developing a low emission development strategy (LEDS) and the attendant Measurement, Reporting and Verification Framework (MRV.)
This work is being implemented under the project “Support Towards Implementing Zimbabwe’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agrement on Climate Change (STIZ-NDC)”.
Washington Zhakata, director at the Climate Change Department in the environment ministry said this during an address at a four-day meeting on climate change held in the capital Harare recently.
“The STIZ-NDC project is a collaborative effort by the Government of Zimbabwe and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Government of Russia,” he said, explaining that the project sought to enable the country to meet its NDC target by delivering the LEDS and MRV Framework.
“The project also aims at facilitating partnerships with investors and companies, including Russian businesse actors and academic institutions, in order to open up investments, collaborations and technological exchange for low emission development,” he added.
The objectivesof the meeting were to identify sector specific mitigation actions, vital in the development of the LEDS and MRV; and to get recomemmendations whhich will be prioritised in by the country.
Zimbabwe’s NDC seek to reduce energy – greenhouse gas emissions by 33% below the projected business asusual by 2030.
The Paris Agreement requires countries to communicate more ambitious NDCs after every five years.
Currently Zimbabwe’s NDC is not economy-wide, it is specific to energy sector with respect to mitigation and agriculture with resoect to adaptation.
The country is envisaging to increase its ambition in the subsequent NDCs and to migrate towards economy-wide NDC.
“To inform future ambitions, the copuntry is developing a mid-century low greenhouse gas emission development strategy in line with Artice 4.19 of the Paris Agreemet on Climate Change . . . that calls upon countries communicate to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) their low greenhouse gs emission development strategies by 2020,” reiterated the Climate change point man in the country.
Pursuant to the need to develop The LEDS and the MRV, Government has set up a structure at the highest level – in the Ofiice of The President and Cabinet to give policy direction in adddition to engaging services of local and international consultants to carry out these two work streams.
The consulting team – Buriran Martin, Greg Cook and Dingane Sithole – have already presented the inception report and the methodology to key stakeholders with the aim of receiving stakeholders’ guidance and direction before proceeding with scenatrio –building and coming with LEDS and MRV documents for consideration and adoption at the material time.
