Oman became the first Gulf State to submit its INDC on Monday, handing in its pledge to a UN climate pact alongside Caribbean island nation Antigua and Barbuda as UN climate negotiations resumed for week-long talks in Bonn.
Oil-rich Oman pledged to cut its emissions 2% from its 2030 BAU level of 90.5 million tonnes of CO2e. This would still allow its emissions to rise around 23% from today’s levels, according to Carbon Pulse calculations.
Oman is 21st on the IMF’s ranking of nations’ GDP per capita – placing ahead of France, UK and Japan. The country and its wealthy Gulf neighbours have not previously been obliged under the UN’s Kyoto Protocol to take any steps to curb emissions and have frequently threatened to block UN talks unless they included compensation for their loss of income derived from burning fossil fuels.
Oman’s INDC said the nation would reduce gas flaring from its oil sector, increase the share of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects among industries and reduce HCFC use in the foam and refrigeration sectors. It gave no numerical targets.
The country said it could make further mitigation efforts that would require UNFCCC funding, capacity building and technology transfers. These efforts included sustainable buildings, further renewable and energy efficiency, low carbon transport, methane recover and carbon sinks.
ANTIGUA
Antigua and Barbuda’s INDC pledge included no emissions reduction targets but featured an unconditional goal to enhance its capacity to provide a low-carbon development pathway and update its building code by 2020 to meet projected climate impacts.
In addition, and conditional upon international support, the Caribbean nation also pledged four mitigation goals including setting energy efficiency standards for all vehicles and appliances by 2020, building a waste-to-energy plant by 2025, achieving 50MW of renewable electricity capacity and protect all remaining wetlands as carbon sinks by 2030. These would cost $220 million in total.
It also set five conditional adaptation goals costing $20 million per year.
Antigua and Barbuda said it considered establishing an international market-based mechanism to be an “important complementary option to reduce total costs associated with limiting GHG emissions” and it acknowledged the potential for a renewed and reformed CDM to fulfil this role.
“The final mechanism should be a robust system that guarantees transparency and environmental integrity, and delivers real , permanent and verified emissions reductions and ensures that double counting is avoided,” it added.
By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com
