Developing countries are designing NAMAs at an increasing rate despite a widening gap between the required funding from richer nations and the cash available, a report found this week.
In a half-year update, consultancies Ecofys and ECN found that at least 151 NAMAs are under development in 37 countries, a 28% increase or 30 more than their previous report six months ago.
“NAMA activities over the last six months reflect developing countries’ increased interest in contributing to climate change mitigation efforts… we see there is a discrepancy between the energy and enthusiasm countries put into the preparation of NAMAs, and the international support that is being made available,” the report said.
NAMAs are a set of emission-curbing policies, strategies or projects that a developing country takes on a voluntary basis in line with its national development objectives.
They aim to reduce emissions but often involve longer-term initiatives to drive a wider shift to a low carbon economy rather than focus on near-term carbon cuts.
Examples include developing policies to deploy public transport networks or develop forestry practices to provide energy sources and avoid deforestation.
Despite the hefty number of new plans, the report found just 11 of them are actually being implemented, five in Latin America, four in Asia and two in Africa.
While Latin America was the quickest region to begin planning NAMAs, other regions of the developing world have caught up in the last year, the report found.
Fewer NAMAs are being submitted to the UNFCCC’s portal, which aims to match activities to funding, according to data from UN agency UNEP DTU.
It found that the UN portal showed NAMA support offered from richer nations stands at $74 million, dwarfed by the $6.3 billion requested by poorer countries to help implement 88 NAMAs costing $30.9 billion in total and designed to save 148 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year by 2020.
Almost all funding has been put up by Germany’s and the UK’s NAMA Facility, which has pledged a total of €205 million ($229 million), including €85 million this year featuring additional contributions from Denmark and the European Commission.
By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com
