Webinar: Enhancing NDCs by Integrating Waste Methane: Strategies and Opportunities for Support in Latin America and the Caribbean

It is well accepted that commitments made in the NDC 3.0 round provide a critical opportunity to uphold the global commitments made in the Paris Agreement. Addressing non-CO2 emissions, especially methane, has been recognised as a crucial ‘emergency brake’ on global warming. An increasing number of NDCs recognise and reflect the growing significance of methane and non-CO2 emissions as integral to NDC targets.

Globally the waste sector, including food and organic materials left in landfills, open dumps and wastewater, is responsible for approximately 20% of human-driven methane emissions and is the fastest growing anthropogenic source of methane emissions today. Urgently addressing waste systems to avoid emissions is a critical action that governments need to take.

Methane is created when organic waste decomposes in landfills and large open dumps, as well as wastewater under anaerobic conditions. To be consistent with IPCC 1.5 °C scenarios, methane emissions from the waste sector should be reduced by approximately 30-35% below 2020 levels by 2030 and nearly 55% by 2050. Acting on waste management is also clean air and health imperative. An estimated 40% of waste is openly burned, and this is a significant source of black carbon which threatens both human health and the environment.

This webinar focuses on opportunities and examples for enhancing inclusion of methane in NDCs in the waste sector. It will highlight where Latin American and Caribbean countries have made significant and substantial commitments in both upstream and downstream actions, which demonstrate significant mitigation potential. The examples will also illustrate the significant co-benefits that have been achieved, through support of a circular and inclusive economy. Latin America and the Caribbean has significant potential for methane mitigation as waste streams in the region comprise on average 50% of organic waste. In some cities, methane accounts for half of all GHG emissions.

Nine Latin American and Caribbean countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Trinadad and Tobago, Nicaragua) have signed the Reducing Methane from Organic Waste (ROW) Declaration launched at COP29, committing to strengthening methane ambition from the waste sector in their NDC 3.0 by means of prioritizing and accelerating solutions that focus on avoidance, diversion, valorization and infrastructure (ADVI) in the waste sector, accelerating dumpsite closure, promoting enabling policies and capacity building for national and subnational governments (including through the LOW-Methane initiative) and developing innovative financial mechanisms to support sustainable organic waste management.

This event will highlight the specific actions of some LAC countries through NDC processes and recent regional initiatives. Several countries have started to include methane in their last NDCs: 50 per cent of countries in the LAC region have included measures addressing methane from the waste sector (Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay). However, only 15 per cent of countries, including Colombia, Chile, Dominica, Guatemala and Uruguay, have quantified the methane mitigation potential associated with these measures for the waste sector.

Finally, the webinar will address the Finance, Technology and Capacity Building (FTC) opportunities available to countries strengthening commitments of emission mitigation through the NDC and BTR process. It will also draw attention to recent initiatives of regional organisations and institutions in support of more ambitious and comprehensive NDCs.