Uganda Releases First NDC Partnership Plan for Climate Action in Africa

The Ugandan Government approved the plan to deliver on the country’s commitments to advance the Paris Agreement on climate change; Plan identifies five priority areas set by the government and begins to connect them to available partner and program resources for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The Government of Uganda today released its strategy to deliver on commitments under the Paris Agreement, in a blueprint known as the Uganda NDC Partnership Plan. Building off progress already made through Uganda’s existing climate plans and policies, the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement captures the country’s ambitions for a sustainable future. The Partnership Plan complements this vision, while also serving as an accelerator for action. The Plan identifies five priority areas set by the government for implementation of its NDC, and begins to connect those priorities to available partner and program resources from across the NDC Partnership and its network.

In its NDC, Uganda puts strong emphasis on adaptation actions, to ensure all people and communities are resilient to climate impacts. To reduce its impact on climate change, Uganda has committed to reducing its emissions by 22 percent by 2030, with actions focused in energy, forestry, and wetlands. Through the Partnership Plan, Uganda is raising its ambition by setting the timeline to achieve several NDC actions sooner. Uganda seeks to mainstream climate resilience across sectors and develop early warning systems and robust monitoring systems by 2020, much earlier than originally planned. The Plan also aims to create an enabling environment for the country’s NDC by elaborating and clarifying actions for transformative change as the country grows and develops into the future.

Key to achieving Uganda’s climate goals is effective coordination and prioritization as well as monitoring and reporting on its climate actions and response.

The five priority areas for Uganda identified in its NDC Partnership Plan are: strengthened operational and gender-responsive policy and institutional frameworks for the effective governance of climate change; increased climate financing for planning and budgeting on the national and local levels; effective and institutionalized measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems to monitor greenhouse gas emissions and gender-responsive adaptation measures; strengthened capacity of government officials, civil society, the private sector and academia to effectively integrate NDC and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitments with a gender lens into existing and future programs; and accelerated project financing for NDC implementation.

To deliver on these priorities, the plan identifies 49 activities for the next three years, including enacting a legal framework for climate action; developing a project pipeline of investment-ready projects for funding across priority sectors; establishing and strengthening national climate change funding mechanisms; modeling national temperature and precipitation and extreme event scenarios; and developing a national greenhouse gas inventory system.

Uganda Climate Change Department Commissioner Chebet Maikut said, “Uganda recognizes the importance of fulfilling its commitments under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, while at the same time welcoming the support of development partners in pushing Uganda’s climate agenda forward. To this end, to the development partners and the NDC Partnership that have pledged support to Uganda’s climate ambitions - I thank you!”

He added, “It’s through such partnerships that we can achieve and meaningfully contribute to the global climate ambition that we desperately require to save tomorrow’s climate today.”

The newly-approved NDC Partnership Plan serves as the basis for planning, coordination, resource mobilization and transparency on NDC implementation between the government and partners to work together to help Uganda achieve its climate and development goals.

To date, a number of implementing partners, both from inside and outside the NDC Partnership, have already pledged support to Uganda, including the Governments of Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Austria; the European Union; United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC); United Nations Development Program (UNDP); the African Development Bank; the World Bank; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO); the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI); Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement Bwaise Facility (EMLI); Conservation International; International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); National Adaptation Plan – Global Network (NAP-GN); and World Resources Institute.

NDC Partnership Steering Committee member Ms. Carola van Rijnsoever, Ambassador for Sustainable Development at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, congratulated Uganda on its Partnership Plan, saying, “Uganda is showing a strong commitment in implementing the Paris Agreement and in aligning its climate action to the Sustainable Development Goals. The Netherlands is pleased to support these efforts jointly with other development partners committed to decisive climate and development action.”

Swedish Ambassador to Uganda Per Lingarde added, “As a member of the NDC Partnership, Sweden convened in cooperation with the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment and the Stockholm Environment Institute a half-day dialogue meeting on the progress of the implementation of Uganda’s Nationally Determined Contribution in Kampala on 19 June. The meeting highlighted the connection between climate and development, and between Uganda’s NDC and the Sustainable Development Goals. Sweden will through its development cooperation continue to engage with Uganda on ways to bring the challenge of climate change into a pathway of sustained development focusing on renewable energy and green cities.”

The NDC Partnership is a global coalition of countries and institutions committed to advancing ambitious climate and development action, co-chaired by the Kingdom of Morocco and the Federal Republic of Germany, which was represented at the launch event by German Ambassador to Uganda Dr. Albrecht Conze. The Partnership has grown to include 74 member countries, 17 institutional members and four associate members since its launch at COP22 in Marrakesh in November 2016. Of these members, Uganda was one of the first countries in Africa to join the NDC Partnership, and formalized its request for technical assistance in September 2017. The NDC Partnership is supporting more than 30 developing countries to enhance and implement their NDCs through technical assistance; capacity building; knowledge sharing and facilitating access to finance. Members give specific support to strengthen policy frameworks; mainstream climate actions into national, sectoral and sub-national plans; develop budgeting and investment plans; share knowledge and resources and build more robust monitoring and reporting systems in line with country-driven requests.