Key Takeaways from the NDC 3.0 Regional Forum for the Middle East and North Africa

The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) 3.0 Regional Forum for the Middle East and North Africa was held from September 23-25, 2024. MENA  countries reiterated their commitment to ambitious NDCs. They highlighted challenges around the availability of finance to develop and implement NDCs, availability of transparent and accurate data, lack of capacity for developing and tracking NDC implementation, and defining ambitious economy-wide targets. The need for strengthened inter-ministerial collaboration and stakeholder coordination for the distribution of ownership and responsibilities to reach ambitious goals was also highlighted by countries.

The Forum provided an opportunity to strengthen partnerships with partners and members of the CCAC and Global Methane Pledge (GMP), enhance awareness of the urgency of reducing super pollutants and regionally launch the new CCAC Guidance on Including Super Pollutants in NDCs. It also provided an opportunity to connect on regional concerns. Development imperatives remain a focus for countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Countries reflected on the need to balance or reconcile development and climate ambition in their carbon budget in the NDC 3.0. Four CCAC state partners were present: Comoros, Iraq, Jordan, and Morocco.

During the Forum, the CCAC Secretariat delivered an intervention on the importance of integrating non-CO₂ super pollutants in the NDCs 3.0 and led two thematic tables on 1) Setting Ambition and Monitoring and Tracking Progress of NDC Action and 2) Methane and Other non-CO2 pollutants.

In setting ambition and monitoring and tracking the progress of NDC action, countries reflected on lessons learned from the previous round of NDC. It was noted that the Paris Agreement provides that successive NDCs will represent a progression and reflect its highest possible ambition and requires or encourages Parties to prepare NDCs with economy-wide targets covering all sectors of the economy, such as energy, waste, industrial processes and product use, agriculture, and land-use, and all relevant GHG. In the 1st Global Stocktake, parties recognised the need to accelerate and substantially reduce non-carbon-dioxide emissions globally, including methane emissions, by 2030. The discussion was supported by Kenza Khomsi, CCAC Scientific Advisory Panel member, and Tharwat Mokalled, UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO). 

The full inclusion of methane and other non-CO2 short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), such as black carbon (BC), tropospheric ozone and HFCs, into NDCs, through demonstrated measures, was acknowledged as a significant opportunity to increase ambition and take action on simultaneously improving air quality and mitigating climate change due to the significant overlap in emission sources. The need to consider issues of social justice and historical responsibility, as well as the question of balance between conditional and unconditional NDCs for ambition setting, was noted, underlining that development remains the top priority for the region, even more in the current geopolitical context. In this regard, financial support to both develop and implement NDCs was raised as one of the main issues faced by the region in setting ambition and monitoring NDC implementation progress. 

The related issue of data gaps, consistency and transparency, including emissions and cost estimates, was also mentioned as a challenge. Countries further underlined governance challenges, including an existing gap between NDC developers and decision-makers and on engagement of the private sector. Sharing experiences from Morocco, Jordan, and Iraq has illustrated the opportunities for methane and other short-lived climate pollutants to be included in their NDCs.

In the Methane and Other non-CO2 pollutants thematic sessions, participants explored approaches and shared best practices about enhancing the integration of methane and other short-lived climate pollutants in their NDC3.0, with experiences shared by Algeria, Comoros, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, and Iraq.

 Kenza Khomsi, CCAC Scientific Advisory Panel member, and Alfredo Miranda from Clean Air Task Force (CATF) supported the discussion with their expertise. Country representatives highlighted the importance of building on existing work, projects and national planning efforts for enhanced inclusion of methane and other non-CO2 pollutants in NDC3.0 and the value of support provided by international initiatives like the CCAC. It was noted that several MENA countries have started to include SLCPs in their last NDCs. 86% of MENA countries include methane in their overall GHG reduction target, and 73% include measures addressing methane emissions, including 26% in the agriculture sector, 32% in the fossil fuel sector and 63% in the waste sector. 

However, only 9% of MENA countries have quantified the methane mitigation potential associated with these measures or included methane in their overall GHG target. Only 20% of countries in the region have integrated HFCs in their last NDC, and Black Carbon has not been included in any of the MENA countries' NDCs so far. Countries noted the opportunity represented by the enhanced inclusion of SLCP to increase ambition in their NDCs, especially in the waste, fossil fuel, agriculture, transport, household energy and cooling sectors. The challenges of securing support and financing for developing countries to address SLCPs and their climate commitments were raised. 

These included challenges associated with technology transfer, the need to involve SLCPs in Multilateral Development Bank’s (MDB) operations to increase financing, and the inclusion of SLCPs into legal frameworks, regulations and plans. Support areas that were highlighted included strengthened capacities to advance data collection and measurements capacities to formulate ambitious SLCP targets, strengthened inter-ministerial collaboration/ stakeholder coordination and distribution of ownership and responsibilities to reach ambitious goals, and enhanced international cooperation for increased funding for SLCP action and NDC ambition. 

This was the fourth in a series of regional fora on the new generation of NDCs organised to help countries shape the next round of climate pledges under the Paris Agreement. The Forum was hosted by the Government of Tunisia in Tunis. It was co-organized by UNEP, UNDP, NDC Partnership, UN ESCWA in cooperation with UNFCCC Secretariat and with support from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) Secretariat. The CCAC was represented at the NDC 3.0 Forum by Sophie Bonnard and Catalina Etcheverry.