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It is a community composed of state and regional governments interested in learning how to develop a transformational process or "journey" to reduce emissions. The approach of the pathway gives the participating members the possibility to choose, in an informed way, the best option to reduce emissions, while supporting their economic and social development.
States and regions are key to combating climate change and have set ambitious goals. However, in many cases, they lack the technical resources and expertise needed to plan the path that will enable them to achieve their goals. By means of these training and learning forums, states and regions will have better guidance on the essential components of a strategy and will be able to develop the best alternative to reduce their emissions in the long term.
The states and regions that are part of this community of decarbonization projects come from 5 countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.
The Decarbonization Journeys Project supports state and regional governments in developing a transformative process, or "Journey", to reduce emissions.
The Trajectory approach provides state and regional governments with choices so that they can make conscious decisions on the best way to reduce emissions while supporting socio-economic development.
Our specialists are working with the governments of Santa Fe (Argentina), Amazonas, Mato Grosso and São Paulo State (Brazil), Quintana Roo and Querétaro (Mexico), and Madre de Dios (Peru), to reduce emissions from various sectors, including Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), aiming to support forest conservation and land reclamation.
At the end of the project, states and regions, in collaboration with communities and companies, will have a clearly defined pathway to achieve effective long-term emission reductions. They will also have the tools to monitor continuous progress to stay on track with the support of our specialists.
"The pillars of the projects are political leadership and participation. The participation of various key actors, both governmental, as well as private sector and civil society in its development, ensures that these processes are advanced on different fronts and continue even when changes occur in the administration of regional or state government. Political leadership is focused on building support at the national, municipal and intergovernmental levels, including different departments and sectors, and supports the institutionalization process that will ensure the relevance of the project over time. In terms of implementation, the project should be executed in the short and medium term, some governments elaborate plans every 5 years articulated in the long term vision and annual objectives are elaborated to ensure that the short term plans are consistent with decarbonization until 2050. We will discuss institutionalization at the second forum with the theme of alignment and articulation with national policies, and also at the third forum on recommendations for planning."
The type of information depends on the stage of the journey being completed. The most relevant information will always be that developed for him and by state or region. At the beginning of the development of the project, it is important to have the inventories of greenhouse gases of the state or region, and its data banks; historical series and macroeconomic and population projections; data on economic activities. Likewise, state and national climate action plans and strategies, and mitigation and adaptation commitments made by the state or region.
We will discuss the promotion of key stakeholder involvement in the fourth forum. The process of stakeholder participation should be a transversal axis in the construction of the decarbonization pathway.
This can be achieved through: dialogue, capacity building in the field, a communication strategy that highlights co-benefits. In addition, it is important to present and understand decarbonization as a development process that will have socioeconomic opportunities. Technical information to trace the pathway will be able to measure these benefits in addition to those of emission reductions.
It depends on the scope of this first project and its development. If the objective is to update or complement this path, this first version would be the base document. We also recommend completing the activities normally required to develop one from zero, however, these stages would be completed more quickly in order to update the basic information. This update can also be an opportunity to involve new actors and include their perspectives on what changes need to be made to achieve the long-term objectives. In addition, this concept can be used as a measure to prevent any gaps in the process, such as institutionalization, monitoring plans, etc.
One way to gain political support in different sectors is to quantify the social and economic benefits. For example, in health, employment, poverty reduction. In this way, the positioning of the project will be inter-sectorial and the different sectors will be able to internalize the actions of the project within their own planning. And even though a roadmap may be aligned with national goals, it can also be more ambitious in terms of reducing ambitions. However, it is important to note that work at the regional/state level contributes to national objectives.
One of the pillars of the project is the participation of stakeholders. In this sense, as it begins to develop, governmental and non-governmental institutions should engage from the identification of data and information that help to develop the vision of the project for the impact modeling process. In this way, the project will be a coordinated effort that will have a much better chance of receiving more resources in the implementation phase. Being involved in the design will help to be involved in the implementation and, in turn, facilitate it, as the institutions that provided additional information will also have the opportunity to reflect their interests in economic and social welfare.
If the State has a MRV system for mitigation actions or GHG emissions, it is recommended to articulate the review of the project with these systems. It is recommended to update the project every five years, similar to the review process stipulated for NDCs. However, substantial changes in the technologies or reduction targets will also require a revision of the project. The main drivers are those that can significantly influence (positively or negatively) the roadmap or are very important for the implementation of the roadmap. As a first step, states and regions must complete a driver mapping (MAC) to be included in all stages of the road project. The roadmaps are defined as transformational processes, the changes necessary to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement require a socioeconomic balance of costs, and this analysis is part of the identification of the actions and measures of the roadmap. An example of this is the energy transition to clean sources, this must be fair and uniform, and those affected must be assured of their access to green jobs.
The objectives of the project should be in line with the long-term priorities of the various sectors of the State. For this reason, it is important to have the participation of representatives of the different sectors in the construction of the project. The actions selected for the project should have indicators and a monitoring, reporting and verification system in order to evaluate the progress and reduction of greenhouse gases. The indicators will depend on the scope of each action.
The process of identification of actions for the project involves different stages, including: - Participation of relevant actors: The actors involved in the implementation of the actions provide information to identify actions and examples of these. Identify which actions are being implemented, which can be expanded in ambition and which would be new. - Considering ESG, social and economic impacts, all these actions are prioritized. - With the prioritized actions, emission and cost reduction impact modeling is done to identify the potential pace to achieve the project goal. In general, the ideal is to link the project to a public policy instrument. The actions prioritized for the roadmap can be included in the scope of the PEACC and the EECC, depending on the time frame in which they are considered (short, medium and long term).
At the end of these forums will be concluded the concept note, which will help to start the journey, and identify specifically what is necessary to initiate and share with governors, donors, etc. In the site of the Community of Journeys, specifically in the section Materials, you can find information about journeys and other materials related to them. In November, we will publish a conceptual framework about the stages that a project should include, material that will be shared with you.
It is important to emphasize that the project has impacts not only on the reduction of GHG emissions, but also on sustainable economic growth. This should be an important message when sharing progress and results of the project. However, this will be discussed further at the fourth forum. The Climate Group is working on developing a conceptual framework for these steps, which we intend to publish in November of this year. However, much of this information can be found here: Horizon to Horizon: https://www.climateworksaustralia.org/resource/horizon-to-horizon/
For questions or comments about the project, please contact Natalie Orentlicher: NOrentlicher@TheClimateGroup.org
For questions or comments about the Community of Practice, please contact us:
LEDS LAC is a network of organizations and individuals working on the promotion, design, and implementation of LEDS in Latin America and the Caribbean.
