12 COM/ENV/EPOC/IEA/SLT(2022)2
Executive summary
Accelerated greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation is needed to meet the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. This requires efforts by a variety of actors, and at national, supra-national and sub-national levels. The importance of climate action at the sub-national level is explicitly recognised by both the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Climate Pact. The mitigation potential of actions by non-Party stakeholders (NPS), e.g. sub-national governments, companies, organisations and households, is significant, and is recognised as such in some Parties’ NDCs. Parties and NPS have different abilities to identify, plan, influence, finance and implement mitigation actions. Moreover, these abilities vary from country to country, as well as by sector – reflecting the varying authorities, mandates and capacities that the wide range of NPS have in different countries and sectors. This paper explores how national governments could facilitate increased mitigation action by NPS in two sub-sectors with large mitigation potential and where NPS could play an important role in implementing GHG mitigation actions. These sub-sectors are renewable energy (RE) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). This paper outlines some institutional, regulatory, financial and technical barriers faced by NPS in implementing activities in these sub-sectors. It then highlights some successful examples of how national policies and measures have allowed specific NPS (cities, for renewable electricity; sub-national governments and other NPS for REDD+) to overcome these barriers. The paper also showcases examples of mitigation actions by NPS that provide national governments with insights on enabling policy frameworks that could encourage replication of such actions. There are many national-level policies and measures that can facilitate increased mitigation actions by NPS relating to RE in cities or to REDD+. These include general actions that national-level governments can take to help facilitate increased mitigation action by NPS such as:
Establishing a clear “direction of travel” for GHG emissions at national level for both the short and long-term.
Developing a holistic understanding (both supply- and demand-side) of emission reduction potentials, as well as the potential role that NPS can play in specific sectors and sub-sectors.
Establishing an enabling legislative and policy framework, and reviewing/revising this framework where necessary in order to facilitate GHG mitigation actions by NPS.
Explicitly delineating the roles and responsibilities of national governments vs NPS relating to encouraging, enabling, implementing and financing GHG mitigation actions and ensuring that these roles are clear and reinforce each other.
Increasing “vertical” communication between different levels of government within the country and between governments and NPS, as well as “horizontal” communication between different government departments.
Exploring how to increase the financial attractiveness of mitigation options for NPS, and facilitate NPS access to both national and international financial opportunities.
Unclassified
