Support for the development of Gabon’s National Climate Plan Gabon

Context of the service

In implementation of the commitments made by Gabon during the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 15) in Copenhagen in 2009, the National Climate Council (CNC) was created in April 2010, with the mission of defining the main strategic orientations of Gabonese climate change policy and preparing the future National Climate Plan.
The French Development Agency (AFD) financed technical assistance for the preparation of this Climate Plan, the first phase of which consisted of carrying out an initial diagnosis and developing a roadmap. To this end, technical assistance included:
- Technical support to the CNC, from France and Gabon,
- The voluntary review of the national inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the second national communication on climate change (subcontracted to CITEPA),
- Analysis of policies in the forestry sector, the energy sector, the hydrocarbons and mining sector (subcontracted to Carbone 4, except the forestry sector),
- Analysis of the draft Environmental Code,
- The study on the modelling of GHG emissions in the energy and mining/hydrocarbon sectors on the one hand, and Agriculture, forestry and other land uses (AFOLU) on the other hand,
- Pre-assessment of the impacts of sectoral policies in terms of GHG emissions and assessment of mitigation costs,
- The synthesis of studies and the elaboration of a draft National Climate Plan.

Services provided

The experts were responsible for carrying out sectoral studies on:
- Forest sector policies,
- Current GHG emissions of the AFOLU sector,
- Modelling GHG emissions from the AFOLU sector,
- The pre-assessment of the impacts of sectoral policies on GHG emissions from the AFOLU sector.
They also ensured the overall coordination of this major project and carried out the proofreading and quality control of all the other sectoral reports.
This work led to the development of a first version of the National Climate Plan, in which ambitious measures were taken, including:
- The initiation of work with a view to drawing up a national plan for the reduction of flared gas, with a view to its recovery (reinjection, nitrogen fertilizer, compression and sale of domestic gas),
- Strengthening the consideration of climate impacts in the conduct of environmental impact studies,
- The establishment of a land use plan aimed in particular at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,
- Strengthening the share of clean energies in Gabon's energy mix, particularly through the development of hydropower.
The main lines of this National Climate Plan were presented by the President of the Republic of Gabon during COP 17 in Durban at the end of 2011.

Summary of the service

General coordination of the ONFI-Carbone4-CITEPA consortium, in charge of supporting the National Climate Council of Gabon in the development of its National Climate Plan: Review of national GHG inventories; Study of mitigation potentials in the sectors of agriculture, forestry, transport, hydrocarbons; Identification of eligible projects and interested stakeholders; Review of the legal framework in the environmental sector; Support for the communication of the National Climate Plan.