Low Emission Capacity Building Programme

Overview

The Low Emission Capacity Building Programme (LECBP) was launched in January 2011 as part of a joint collaboration between the European Union (European Commission and Member States) and the United Nations Development Programme. Since its inception the LECB Programme has grown both in scope and breadth, proudly including 25 participating countries and enhanced technical support through generous contributions from the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, and AusAID.

This collaborative, country driven programme aims to strengthen technical and institutional capacities at the country level, while at the same time facilitating inclusion and coordination of the public and private sector in national initiatives addressing climate change. It does so by utilizing the global networks and substantial experience that UNDP has established through our wide portfolio of projects and programmes around the globe. The Low Emission Capacity Building Programme is part of the larger Green, Low-Emission Climate Resilient Development Strategy of UNDP and gains insight from and builds on global programmes and initiatives already developed by UNDP and donor countries.

Programme Objectives

The Programmes overall objective is to strengthen capacities in participating countries in the following ways:

• Develop greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory management systems
• Identify opportunities for nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMA)
• Design low emission development strategies (LEDS) in the context of national priorities
• Design systems for measuring, reporting, and verification of proposed actions and means to reduce GHG emissions
• Facilitate the design and adoption of mitigation actions by selected industries in some countries

Background

Since the adoptions of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, significant progress has been made worldwide in the way the issue of climate change is being addressed on national and international levels.

Better integration is seen between the variety of climate-change adaptation efforts that have arisen nationally and through international organizations. For example, some countries are more effectively mainstreaming the issue of climate change into their national development plans; systems for data collection and management are being developed; alternative means of financing for climate-change mitigation are on the increase.

This progress is just the beginning, however, and by no means universal. In many parts of the world, significant challenges remain. In lesser developed countries in particular, capacities and funds for achieving this kind of progress are lacking or sorely limited. Coping with current and projected impacts of climate change not only requires national governments to understand and manage a tremendous amount of technical information; it demands that a wide range of stakeholders be brought together to address the issue of climate change coherently.

While national policy is an essential element of effective mitigation actions it has become increasingly clear that the challenges go beyond national governments; they they alone cannot tackle the issue of climate change. Industry—whether private or public—must play an equally important role in any concerted efforts to reduce GHG emissions and achieve low-carbon growth. The Low Emission Capacity Building Programme is an exciting new way to achieve this important fusion between the public sector and industry.

Global Support Unit

UNDP supports and guides national project teams through the Global Support Unit (GSU). Located at UNDP head quarters in New York, the GSU assist countries in implementing their projects and ensuring technically sound deliverables.

Support begins with a 6-month inception phase, during which guidelines and templates are provided by the GSU to assist countries in carrying out their stocktaking and stakeholder consultations for the design of the national projects. Once stocktaking reveals the needed scope and nature of a given country project and identifies its potential synergies with ongoing projects and/or policy matters, an individual project document is drawn up for approval.

The GSU continues to support countries during implementation in a variety of ways, including:

• Providing appropriate tools and training available to support NAMA, LEDS, and MRV in the context of national priorities. This support includes the hiring of experts to produce needed publications, the provision of a training menu based on capacity building needs for use in national-level projects, the creation of a technical training package (in coordination with Centres of Excellence), and offering training in various thematic areas.
• Providing targeted technical support to national teams for the implementation of project activities. Some key actions of the GSU in this area include: establishing effective means of communication on what technical support is available and how to access it, commissioning the development of any resources needed to fill the gaps, monitoring of technical support and its impacts on project implementation and the quality of deliverables, and reporting on results and lessons learned from technical assistance via widely distributed GSC newsletters, case studies, and various additional knowledge products.
• Providing support for the identification of innovative policy and financing options for low-emission development and in order to facilitate partnerships between the public sector and private or public industry. Types of guidance provided include conducting studies and developing and adopting plans at the country level, identifying potential sources of funding and institutional arrangements for the implementation of LEDS and mitigation actions, and identifying mainstreaming opportunities by key stakeholders under the guidance of a National Steering Committee.
• Disseminating knowledge and lessons learned in order to raise awareness, engage stakeholders, and inform decision makers. A primary role of the GSC is to disseminate lessons learned and best practices on a continuous basis. At the centre of this information exchange will be knowledge networks and external communication, on which national teams can share their experiences and results. Best practice documents will be prepared for thematic areas. The GSU will assist countries in their efforts to ensure that country projects are not carried out in isolation. Given that climate change is a cross-cutting issue which should be integrated into pertinent initiatives at the country level, the GSC promotes mainstreaming, especially in the areas of and poverty eradication, capacity building, sectoral and national planning, and gender concerns.