Zimbabwe – Black carbon inventory development

Workstream:

Institutional strengthening support and training

Ongoing

started:

2018

Despite its small contribution to global emissions, Zimbabwe is taking ambitious action to tackle the challenges of climate change and air pollution simultaneously in view of its development imperatives. The Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry is working with the Coalition's Supporting National Planning (SNAP) Initiative to develop an integrated emission inventory of greenhouse gases, short-lived climate pollutants and air pollutants to enhance its capacity to understand issues related to SLCP mitigation.

This work is complemented by a project funded under the umbrella of the NDC Partnership Climate Action Enhancement Package. As part of this project, implementers of the SNAP initiative will support the development of a greenhouse gas mitigation analysis for the development of Zimbabwe’s revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) that will also consider short-lived climate pollutants and air quality benefits.

Objectives

Our SNAP Initiative is providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Environment of Zimbabwe with the object of developing an integrated analysis of air pollutants, greenhouse gases and short-lived climate pollutants.

What we're doing

Phase I – Black Carbon Inventory Support – Ongoing

In 2018, the Ministry of Water Resources, Development and Climate of Zimbabwe expressed interest in working with the Coalition's Supporting National Planning (SNAP) Initiative to develop an integrated emissions inventory of greenhouse gases, short-lived climate pollutants and air pollutants. To begin this process, a national team of staff from relevant sectoral ministries was assembled to identify ongoing and potential policies and programmes related to mitigation and to facilitate data collection. The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) provided technical support to develop the inventory using the LEAP-IBC model through regional workshops and online discussions. In order to ensure integrated air pollution and climate planning, the data and analysis used was consistent with Zimbabwe’s 2015 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and greenhouse gas inventory reports.

Further support being planned under the umbrella of, and with funding from, the NDC Partnership Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP). With technical support from the Stockholm Environment Institute, a national team will develop a national model developed to assess greenhouse gas and SLCP emissions and mitigation potential and a report presenting the results of the analysis. The objective is to increase in capacity within national institutions to continue to develop and update this model for use in subsequent assessments and to track progress.

Why we're doing this work

The Southern African nation of Zimbabwe is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, 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 14 million people particularly in urban centres such as Harare and Bulawayo. These threats include breathing problems, chronic diseases and premature mortality, and are caused predominantly by emissions from sectors including household energy, waste, agriculture and land-use.