Colombia - Deliver National Methane Roadmap

Rationale

This initiative directly supports Colombia's ongoing efforts to mitigate short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) and align with its international commitments, including the Global Methane Pledge made during COP26. As a founding member of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) since 2012, Colombia has demonstrated a strong commitment to reducing SLCPs and air pollutants. The country’s active participation in the Coalition has contributed significantly to the development of key national strategies, including the National Strategy for the Mitigation of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) adopted in 2018. This strategy has served as a cornerstone for Colombia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), submitted in 2020, which outlines a portfolio of measures aimed at reducing emissions from key sectors, including oil and gas production, open agricultural burning, and coke production.

Building upon this foundation, Colombia has also adopted Law 2169 in 2021, which provides a legal framework to promote low carbon development and further strengthens the implementation of the NDC’s targets and measures. Despite these efforts, significant gaps remain in meeting the country's emissions reduction targets, especially in sectors such as Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU), and there is a need to identify additional measures to achieve these goals. This initiative seeks to bridge those gaps by exploring new opportunities for methane emissions reduction and enhancing the national portfolio of measures to ensure Colombia meets its climate and air quality targets for 2020-2030. By addressing these gaps, the initiative will not only contribute to national emission reductions but also support Colombia’s broader climate action and air quality goals, with tangible benefits for public health and environmental sustainability.

Objectives

1. To support the definition of a cross-sectoral methane roadmap for Colombia, incorporating a detailed methane budget based on the inputs provided by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
2. To assist in the formulation of a short-term national carbon budget that aligns with Colombia’s long-term climate stabilization strategy, with a specific focus on the disaggregation of the methane budget.
3. To support the conceptualization and development of a greenhouse gas (GHG) and particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions mitigation planning tool, incorporating CO2, methane, N2O, HFCs, and PM2.5 (including the ratio of black carbon and organic carbon), and to implement this tool specifically for the black carbon ratio.

Activities

To achieve these objectives, the project will:

1. Develop a draft methane roadmap in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the CCAC Secretariat.
2. Finalize a document detailing Colombia's carbon and methane budgets for 2020-2030, with projections for 2031-2035, including methodology and validation.
3. Create a draft conceptualization of a GHG and PM2.5 emissions mitigation planning tool, covering CO2, methane, N2O, HFCs, and PM2.5 (including black carbon and organic carbon ratios).
4. Prepare a report on improvements to the national emissions model under the NDC, focusing on methane emissions.
5. Update the NDC model to integrate black carbon and evaluate its impact based on the mitigation planning tool results.

Project Reference: [CO-22-002t] Colombia - Deliver National Methane Roadmap"