Dominican Republic - National planning on short-lived climate pollutants

Year

2018

2020

Funding

CCAC Funded

Implementing partners

The Dominican Republic's National Council of Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism and Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources are working with the Supporting National Planning (SNAP) Initiative to develop an integrated emission inventory of greenhouse gases, short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) and air pollutants to enhance their capacity to understand issues related to short-lived climate pollutant mitigation. This work will be complemented by further support from the SNAP initiative aimed at the development of a greenhouse gas and SLCP mitigation analysis to support the revision of the Dominican Republic’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and the definition of implementation pathways for key SLCP measures.

Situated in the Caribbean Sea, the Dominican Republic is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, from rising sea levels, severe flooding, increasing temperatures and extreme weather events. At the same time, levels of air pollution that exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines remain a threat to the health of a population of over 10 million people particularly in more densely populated areas such as the capital city of Santo Domingo. These threats include breathing problems, chronic diseases and premature mortality, and are caused predominantly by emissions of pollutants from sectors including energy, transportation, and land use.

Objectives

The SNAP Initiative is providing technical assistance and support for the Dominican Republic with the objective of increasing action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants and achieving multiple benefits from action.

What we're doing

Phase I – Black Carbon Inventory Support – Complete

In 2018, the National Council of Climate Change and Clean Development (CNCCMDL), along with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MENR) of the Dominican Republic, expressed interest in working with the SNAP Initiative to develop an integrated emissions inventory of greenhouse gases, short-lived climate pollutants and air pollutants. This activity was implemented jointly by the Air Quality Division of the MENR and the Mitigation Department of the CNCCMDL to ensure consistency with the national greenhouse gas emission inventory and applicability for air quality and climate change planning.

Phase II – National SLCP Planning: Ongoing

Further support was agreed in 2019. Inventory work will be expanded to include an assessment of the progression of emissions into the future for a baseline scenario and multiple mitigation scenarios. This assessment will help to evaluate the effectiveness of different SLCP policies and mitigation measures and be used to produce a recommendation report to for the Dominican Republic's NDC revision process. It will also provide an assessment of the SLCP mitigation potential of the emission projection pathways being evaluated for the revised NDC and identify actions to maximise SLCP emission reductions from NDC implementation.