Creating the enabling conditions for eliminating open burning of waste through regional roadmaps and city pilots

Rationale

The open burning of waste is practiced across the Global South, producing a wide range of atmospheric pollutants including short lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), such as black carbon. Black carbon emissions are a major source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a leading cause of poor health & premature deaths. Black carbon is also a climate forcer, with a climate change impact up to 5,000 times greater than CO2 and of a scale equivalent to 2-10% of global CO2 equivalent emissions.

Despite its catastrophic impact on health and the environment, the open burning of municipal solid waste (MSW) has been widely neglected by funding institutions and governments who often lack the tools and capacities to take action. This is coupled with a lack of awareness on the impacts of open burning of waste, and the consequences of black carbon emissions.

Through the development of regional roadmaps based on national & sub-national reviews and contextualised in city pilots & on the ground implementation, this project will pave the way for a transformation in the waste sector, equipping regional bodies, national & local governments with the capacities & tools to plan & take action for reduction of SLCPs. 

Objectives

This project aims to:

• Create the enabling conditions for regional change in policy, processes and practices in the waste sector by increasing the ability of national and local governments to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants caused by open waste burning and dumping. 
• Develop regional approaches that can be tailored to cities to design contextually appropriate solutions. 
• Lay the groundwork to catalyse wider funding on open burning for the implementation of roadmaps. 
• Increase awareness on the links between open burning of waste and climate change.

Activities

To achieve its objectives, the project will:

• Hold meetings at the regional level inviting regional committees, government stakeholders and potential financing agencies to present the scope of the project and its work plan. 
• Gather data and information about policies, regulations, programmes, projects, and activities related to eliminating open burning, waste management, and air quality, as well as the social, environmental, and economic context.
• Develop estimates of regional emissions levels using population data, waste generation per capita, waste composition, etc. Some reduction strategies will be recommended at national level and at the pilot city. 
• Conduct consultations and interviews with representatives from relevant ministries, national and local governments from each region. 
• Develop pilot activities based on the comments and suggestions from the stakeholder consultation at the pilot city.
• Design a city wide behaviour change campaign based on the stakeholder consultation at the pilot city. 
• Develop a roadmap development based on the comments & suggestions from the stakeholder consultation in each country and evidence gathering phase, reduction strategies with reduction targets will be proposed at national level.
• The results from each country will be analysed and consolidated to the regional level. Estimate the regional emission reduction target based on country results 
• Implement the pilot activity in each region. The report with results and lessons learnt will be developed and shared with the city, the consortium members and CCAC for their review and comments.
• Implement a behaviour change campaign in the pilot city in each region.
• Conduct a roundtable discussion to validate the Roadmap based on the results and lessons learnt from the pilot activities. 
  
  
  Project reference: [WST-22-001] Creating the enabling conditions for eliminating open burning of waste through regional roadmaps and city pilots