Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, August 20, 2019. Five Latin American countries are preparing to develop their Long-Term Strategies to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions in 2050.
In the framework of the Latin American and Caribbean Climate Week the “Workshop for the exchange of knowledge for the development of Long Term Strategies: Experiences between the leading European and Latin American countries” was held on Tuesday.
The event was organized by the UN Environment Transparency Center and the UNEP DTU Partnership, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), GIZ, and FIAPP. It had the support of the European Union’s EUROCLIMA+ Programme, and its purpose was to promote spaces for the exchange of experiences and lessons learned between Latin American and European countries on the process of developing Long-Term Strategies towards the decarbonization of economic sectors through sustainable and resilient development.
Germany, Spain and the European Union block shared their experiences with the representatives of Latin American countries who also had the opportunity to present the prioritized areas in their strategies. The Latin American countries also update the baseline of their projects and shared points of view on the process and the regionalisation needs of these strategies. In the end, the states defined a work plan and the next steps needed to achieve these strategies and how to integrate them.
The purpose of the Long-Term Strategies is to visualize the necessary transformations in the economy of the countries to comply with decarbonization and adaptation to climate change in line with the global objectives of the Paris Agreement. They are also an opportunity to “understand the immediate policy changes necessary to initiate the transformation and anticipate transition costs and remedy them” (Fay et al. 2015; Vogt-Schilb and Hallegatte 2017; Pathak 2017).
By 2020 countries must submit an update of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reach the 1.5-2 ° C global temperature target set by the Paris Agreement. However, the sharpening of the effects of climate change is leading states to increase their ambition in the light of a long-term vision to 2050.
This workshop is part of the agreement on regional collaboration at the ministerial level for the integration of Long Term Strategies signed at COP24 by Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Uruguay. Under this agreement, the countries requested technical support from the EUROCLIMA+ Programme of the European Union and its implementing agencies under the coordination of the UN Environment Environment Transparency Center and the UNEP DTU Partnership for the development of their strategies.
To date, 181 parties have submitted their first NDCs, and only 11 countries have communicated their Long-Term Strategies (UNFCCC, 2019), including only Mexico from Latin America.
For more information, please contact:
Communication Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, UN Environment: [email protected] +507 305-3182.
