02.11.2011 | News
The Nordic Ministers of the Environment have decided to strengthen the Nordic cooperation on climate mitigation. The decision was made at the Nordic Council meeting in Copenhagen on Wednesday.
In practice, the ministers decided to support up scaled mitigation programmes and pilot projects in Peru and Viet Nam. The programmes, which are still under consideration, will be implemented through the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) and NEFCO. The pilot projects in Peru will focus at the waste sector and aim at improving Peru’s readiness to benefit from international climate finance for supporting up-scaled mitigation action. The pilot programme in Viet Nam will be implemented in the highly energy intensive cement production sector. NEFCO will finance the climate projects in Peru with funds from its Nordic Environment Development Fund.
“We are delighted by the political support for our work, which will enable us to intensify our climate mitigation efforts in low-income countries”, said Managing Director Magnus Rystedt from NEFCO.
The projects in Peru and Viet Nam aim to demonstrate how international climate finance can be matched with up-scaled host country mitigation action. Limiting global warming to two degrees requires considerable scaling up of mitigation efforts also in developing countries, and developed countries have agreed to support developing countries with this massive task, through capacity building, technology transfer and financing. The Nordic Partnership Initiative is a joint response by the Nordic countries to this urgent need to pioneer efforts to bring developing countries’ capacity to the required level.
The Initiative seeks to build host countries’ capacity to evaluate, structure and implement Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), making use of international funding and possible new market mechanisms.
Ash Sharma, Vice President for Carbon Finance at NEFCO and a member of project steering group, said “On a practical level, the proposed readiness activity will aim to address gaps in data availability and technical and institutional capacity in Peru. It offers a unique opportunity for the Nordic countries and Peru to collectively pioneer new financial support mechanisms for climate mitigation, act as a model for similar market readiness initiatives and share valuable insights with the global community”.
Learn more about the pilot programmes in Peru and Viet Nam
Download the feasibility study on up-scaling mitigation action in Peru and Viet Nam
Learn more about the Nordic Development Fund
Read more about the Nordic Council Session 2011 in Copenhagen