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Countries supported: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname. |
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RCC St George's embark on developing national capacity in calculating emissions from electricity generation To facilitate renewables and energy efficiency projects through CDM and NAMA, UNFCCC together with the Regional Collaboration Centre St George’s (RCC St George’s) and UNDP hosted a series of training workshops on the development of standardized baselines for the power sector. UNFCCC colleagues were joined by Vintura Silva and Nigel Edwards from the RCC St George’s who coordinated the organization of the workshops. The workshops were held during 23-31 October 2017 across three Caribbean countries:- Guyana, Suriname and Saint Lucia. The purpose of these workshops was to increase capacity in the area, develop baselines and collect and process data.
Participants at the Training workshop in Guyana, 23-24 October 2017 The Caribbean power sector is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuel; therefore, the introduction of renewables would result in significant emission reductions. Besides achieving sustainable development (SD) objectives of the countries, the transition to renewables through carbon/climate finance would also require a robust and credible MRV (measuring, reporting & verifying) system to report mitigation outcomes objectively and transparently for the region. Standardized baselines as a benchmark established for the power sector provide critical information for the assessment of the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation of renewable energy and energy efficiency activities implemented in the region/countries. The workshops aimed to facilitate capacity development domestically in the 3 targeted countries through the delivery of hands-on technical training for DNAs and relevant entities to further cement their understanding of the procedure and methodological approaches of standardized baselines for the power sector using real case data. The participants learned how the data collected for the standardized baselines are also relevant to their national GHG emissions inventory and the preparation of national communications.
Practical sessions during the training workshop in Suriname to calculate the Grid Emission factors 26-27 October 2017 Upon request from the participants, they were introduced to the RETScreen® tool to demonstrate the application of the standardized baseline in the broader context of climate change mitigation and climate finance. Also, introductions were made to the “Transformational Change Assessment” of projects developed by The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT). Participants expressed their appreciation of having received this technical training and concluded that other sectors within each of their own countries could also benefit from developing standardized baselines (for example, the waste sector). The workshops in the three countries successfully achieved their objectives and helped to progress the standardized baseline development to the advanced stage for the countries. We look forward to seeing more standardized baselines coming from the Caribbean!
Participants at the Training workshop in St Lucia 30-31 October 2017 Besides these RCC continue to work on Grid Emission Factor Calculations for Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Haiti, St Vincent and Grenadines, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nieves, as well as renewal of Grid Emission Factor Standardised Baseline for Belize & Waste sector Standardised Baseline for Dominican Republic. For Belize and St Vincent and Grenadines, development of transport sector baseline was also initiated with the JCCCP project.
RCC St George’s lead to advance the discussion on Carbon Pricing in Caribbean Most Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the Caribbean region express an interest in using collaborative market (international and domestic) approaches to meet their mitigation targets set forth within NDCs. In perpetration for the implementation of the commitments in NDCs as well as to arrive at a Caribbean position on the article 6 discussions under the Paris Agreement Caribbean countries requested UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Center (RCC) in St George’s (RCC) support in creating awareness on the topic of Carbon pricing and options under the article 6 of the Paris agreement. Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC) as far back as in year 2015 announced the potential for regional approaches to addressing climate change mitigation including through use of regional carbon markets. Trinidad in its intended Nationally Determined Contributions (iNDC) refer to the use of the carbon market in development by the Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago (ECTT). This initiative “The Caribbean Carbon Pricing Initiative (CCPI)” ( http://energynow.tt/blog/the-caribbean-carbon-pricing-initiative-ccpi )has expressed interest to create a regional carbon market. With the support from CI-ACA (collaborative Instruments for ambitious climate action) initiative RCC St George’s initiated discussions to identify how to advance these discussions. CI-ACA is an initiative by UNFCCC together with the RCC host partners, supported by governments of Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. To start off to validate the requirements of the countries, an informal consultation on establishing a regional initiative to support Caribbean countries in implementing collaborative climate actions, including through a possible regional carbon market, was held on the margins of the Bonn Climate Change Conference in May 2017, under the leadership of Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) in collaboration with UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) St Georges. The key message from this meeting was requirement from the countries to understand options available to the Caribbean countries, knowledge of developments in the international arena and the negotiation process on the topic of carbon pricing and collaborative actions, to evaluate options available to the Caribbean countries to consider. To deliver this RCC in consultation with CCCCC, Carbon Finance Solutions (CFS) consortium of consultants working on CCPI, Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA), together with the support of Swedish Energy Agency (SEA), OECS secretariat, CARICOM secretariat, CPLC of world bank and IETA developed a work programme to address the request of the countries. Initially the partners conducted a survey was conducted with all CARICOM member countries both in written and oral follow ups to identify the needs of the countries in terms of capacity building on carbon pricing. Secondly to create awareness on Carbon pricing a Webinar was organized lead by CMIA on 14 September 2017. The webinar covered the themes of introduction to Carbon pricing, options available to countries and back ground on existing international initiatives. On the 2nd and 3rd of October 2017, RCC in St George’s together with other partners organized the regional dialogue to assist Caribbean countries in the development of carbon pricing approaches for implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. The event was held at Radisson Grenada Beach Resort, Grenada, West Indies, back-to-back with the event “Developing a regional proposal for a programme to support the implementation of the energy aspects in NDCs in the Caribbean” and climate focal points were jointly invited to both the events. Opening the dialogue Dr. Randall Waechter, Associate Director of Research for SGU and Research Grants Coordinator at the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF) stated “This event provides the opportunity for Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) member states to meet and discuss how to access regional and international support for implementation of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other commitments under the Paris Agreement”. “However, despite progress, we are cognizant of the challenges we face as small islands. Due to our small size and small populations the socio-economic stability of small states is being severely compromised by climate change,” said Dr. Hugh Sealy, Professor in the Environmental and Occupational Health Track in SGU’s Department of Public Health and co-facilitator of international discussions of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.”
Participants at the Caribbean regional dialogue on
carbon pricing instruments in Grenada, 2 to 3 October 2017 The objective of this two-day event was to continue momentum and further the dialogue around a carbon market/instrument in the Caribbean region with various state and non-state stakeholders. The objectives of the dialogue were to:
The event was also supported by ParlAmericas, California Air Resource Board. The partners also organised follow up meetings in Trinidad and Tobago (during the CCCCC and GCCA+ international conference on Climate change for the Caribbean on 9-12 October 2017) and Mexico City at the Latin America and Caribbean Carbon Forum (18-20 October 2017) to further impart knowledge on the topic to prepare countries for discussions under Article 6 of the Paris agreement and possible early action. Also, at the invitation of Dr. Jennifer Simons Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Suriname, who was present at the meeting in Grenada, sponsored by ParlAmericas, RCC St George’s together with UNFCCC presented on the topic of carbon pricing and opportunities of carbon markets to parliamentarians at a specially organized national assembly session on 25 October 2017. To summarize the developments CCCCC together with RCC St George’s conducted a follow up event on Caribbean Carbon Pricing Dialogue at COP 23 on 10 November 2017. Below is a summary of key discussion points from this series of discussions:
CI-ACA project based on an analysis of countries readiness, responded to support investigating ways to advance the topic of Carbon pricing in Dominican Republic and Jamaica as an initial step. In collaboration with the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism in the Dominican Republic the first national consultation on the topic of Carbon Pricing on 4 December 2017, with participation of over 40 participants.
Invited speaker Dr. Juan Carlos Arredondo Brun, ministry of Environment Mexico, sharing experience from Mexico on setting price on carbon at the first national consultation on Carbon Pricing for Dominican Republic, 4 December 2017 Some of the conclusions of the workshop were the identification of the priority sectors: energy, transport and agriculture, waste and agriculture. Likewise, the country's experience was shared in the establishment of a tax on high-capacity motor vehicles, incentives to the Renewable Energy Law, among others. It was noted that it is important to verify the environment to reduce the risks of price fluctuations that discourage investments. Establish robust rules, indicators of operation and impacts that point towards the achievement of strategic objectives. Experiences of participation in Market Mechanisms were shared, such as in the Clean Development Mechanism, the challenge of price fluctuations, difficulties in accessing the mechanism for some sectors. It was agreed that based on the discussion to conduct a study to identify what carbon pricing instruments can be considered within the national context.
ZACK 2017 Forum “Access to finance for implementations of policies and measures for implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions” Santo Domingo , Dominican republic 5 to 6 December, 2017 Summary of this consultation was presented and discussed with a larger section of the private sector at ZACK 2017 forum on "Access to finance for Implementations of policies and measures for implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions" organized together with GIZ in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
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