Colombia presents its national contribution to face climate change

Colombia presents its national contribution to face climate change

• Colombia is the first AILAC country to present its national contribution ahead of the Paris Climate Conference
• Through a technical and participatory process, the country establish its climate targets, mainly to achieve a 20% reduction of its projected emission in 2030
• Simultaneously, the country presented its first Biennial Update Report, which includes the most recent national greenhouse gases inventories.

Paris, France. September 7, 2015. Less than three months ahead of the Conference in Paris (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change, Colombian Deputy Minister of Environment Pablo Vieira-Samper, presented today Colombia’s international commitments on mitigation and adaptation. The announcement was made in the context of the preparatory ministerial meeting for the COP convened by the host country, which seeks to advance the negotiation of the new global agreement on climate change.

After a rigorous technical and participatory process for the formulation of the “Nationally Determined Contribution”, Colombia stands out as the first AILAC (Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean) country to present its post-2020 commitments which includes mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation components.

Colombia’s contribution to the Paris Agreement, which was previously announced by the President Juan Manuel Santos, consists of reducing its emissions by 20% with respect to the projected emissions in 2030, as well as building climate resilience in the country, through 10 sectorial and regional actions described in the official document.

The INDCs represent an important milestone in the climate negotiations, and will establish commitments by all of the 196 Country Parties with the aim to limit the increase in global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

These commitments become a great opportunity for Colombia to improve the development model of the country, by recognizing that climate change mitigation and adaptation are a national priority, due to its high vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change and climate variability.

The INDC will allow Colombia to formulate policies, programs, plans and projects to address climate change transversally between the productive sectors, public institutions and private, non-governmental organizations and civil society in general.

Launch of the biennial update report to the Convention

Deputy Minister Pablo Vieira Samper, also presented the first Biennial Update Report (BUR) that Colombia will present to UN Climate Convention, a tool that reports countries’ progress on greenhouse gases emissions reduction, as well as existing gaps in financing needs and access to technology and capacity building.

The reports updates Colombia’s Greenhouse Gases Inventories for the years 2010 and 2012, which will allow emissions tracking, and is therefore a key tool for identifying, reviewing and adjusting mitigation opportunities. This information was also used to prepare the country’s INDC for the 2015 Paris Agreement.

BURs must be presented every two years and are the result of an exhaustive compilation of information which provides the country with the latest information on sectorial emissions, fundamental to focusing efforts for mitigating climate change.