Aligning Climate Change and Sustainable
Development Objectives
South Africa example
Stanford Mwakasonda“Developing Visions for a Low-Carbon Society
through Sustainable Development”
Kaigisyo: 2-1-8 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0073

1Energy Research Centre

University of Cape Town

ERC

Sustainable development & Climate Change Sustainable development policies and measures havesynergies with required action on climate change Now commonly referred to as SD-PAMs - Sustainable
Development (SD) policies and measures (PAMs)
 Back cast from desired future state of development,
not GHG reduction goal or cap define more sustainable paths to meet developmentobjectives
 Climate change as co-benefit of achieving SD Developing countries (DC) focused on basic
development needs more than climate change policy Basis in Article 3.4 of the Convention – right to SD
 Hypothesis - achieving development more sustainably also
2 reduces GHG emissions
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Recognition and advantages
 Recognized that many DCs have implemented policies
that have resulted in emission reduction
 SD-PAMs provide opportunity for development andclimate goals in a way that reduces their total cost
 SD-PAMs becomes an opportunity for DCs to engage inemission reduction effort and codify contribution
 SD PAMs provide opportunity for funding to come fromany source3 What constitutes an eligible “SD-PAM” cold be
pledged under the UNFCCC
 Commit to adopt new policy and / or implement
existing
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DCs and SD-PAMs
 Report show DCs to have significant policies that reduceemissions
 Brazil: biofuels, energy efficiency
 China: energy efficiency, coal to gas, afforestation
 India: restructuring, clean air laws, renewables
 Mexico: using gas, energy efficiency, reduce
deforestation
 SA: access, energy efficiency, reform Turkey: sector and price reforms
 All of these policies are driven by national development
priorities, not climate change
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Example: South Africa
Development objectives

Possible shift to moresustainable development

GHG reduction or increase
relative to business-asusual (current stated policy)

Housing
Remove backlog of 2.6 million
housesAll new low-cost houses builtwith energy efficiency
measures0.05 and 0.6 MtCO
2 -equivalent
per year, across all low-cost
housing

EnergyIncreased access to affordable
energy services

Implement free basic electricity Increaseof 0.146 MtCO22(poverty tariff) of 20- 60 kWh /(upper bound estimate)household / month for 1.4
million poor households

Stimulating economicdevelopment

National energy efficiency
programme to ensure 5%
reduction in electricity
consumption by 2010
-39 000 additional jobs
-R800 million add’l income

Securing supply throughdiversity

Renewable Energy Portfolio
Standard- 5% of electricity generation
by 2010- 20% by 2025

5

Reduce CO2 emissions by 5.5
million tons in 2010

Reductions in CO2 emissions of- 10 MtCO2 in 2010
- 70 MtCO2 in 2025.

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Example: Industrial energy efficiency in South Africa
 National policy
 saving of 12% over a BAU scenario within 10 years
 Specific measures in industry
 Variable speed drives in electrical motors
 Efficient motors: higher costs, but reduced power
consumption
 Efficient lighting
 Heating, ventilation and cooling Thermal saving, e.g waste gas stream recovery andutilization and improved maintenance

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PAM with synergy SD-CC: housing development


Development objectives
 remove backlog of ~2.6 million householdsCurrent policy
 annually build 300 000 ‘RDP houses’Possible shift to more sustainable development path
 All new RDP houses built with a range of energy efficiency
interventions
Insulation, ceilings, orientation, window size
Barrier is pressure on subsidy; enforce through codes
Incremental cost ~R 2000 / household – needs incentive

 Local benefits
7Energy savings to household
Increased thermal comfort
Reduced indoor air pollution

Potential GHG emission reduction
 50 – 600 kt CO2-eq across all houses over periodERC

Our common but differentiated future Somedevelopingcountries needto start taking
actionEmissions All Annex I
emissions needto reduce,
starting now
RIDCs

GlobalEU, US, Annex 1LDCs

2000

82050

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Political issues
 What incentive do developing countries have to participate inSD PAMs?
 Access additional financing for SD
 Part of trust building ‘package’ to further reduce global
 emissions without binding caps for DCs
 Building capacity to make future actions easier toimplement (?)
 Will SD PAMs for developing countries be enough for Annex Icountries to take on more stringent targets?
 Will SD PAMs benefit the global environment?
Depends on the design and implementation
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Steps in implementing SD PAMs
1. Country outlines future development objectives
2. Identify PAMs to achieve development objectives moresustainably
a. Existing policy not fully implemented; orb. New policies and / or more stringent measures
3. Mobilise investment and implement SD-PAMs
a. Could include mutual pledges to mobilise domestic
investment
4. Record SD-PAMs in a registry
5. Set up national monitoring system to track implementationof SD-PAMs
10ERCSteps in applying SD PAMs….cntd
6. Review SD-PAMs in SD units, either as part of nationalcommunication or a specific review
7. Quantify the changes in GHG emissions from individualPAMs
8. Identify PAMs with synergies or conflicts between SD
benefits and GHG limitations
9. Summarise the net impact of a basket of SD-PAMs ondevelopment and GHG emissions

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Key design issues for SD PAMs
 Would countries have unlimited choice on which SD PAMs toimplement?
 Would the emissions reductions from SD PAMs be quantified
ex-post? How rigorously?
 Would the SD impacts of SD PAMs be assessed? Quantitativelyor qualitatively?
 Would SD PAMs be mandatory for some developing countries,
or entirely voluntary?
 Would emission reductions from SD PAMs generate tradable
carbon credits?
 How do these choices affect financing, and what technologies
and sectors will benefit?
 How would SD PAMs link to CDM and other mechanisms?

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Would countries choose their SD-PAMs?

 Recall Annex I PAMs debate – strong resistance even toa ‘menu’ of PAMs, much less harmonized PAMs
 Recall CDM SD debate – focus is on host country
sovereignty and development priorities
 Very unlikely that countries would accept prescriptive
list of SD PAMs or limited ‘menu’ Only drawback is that measuring only departure fromcurrent practice essentially penalises countries thathave already taken early action - like CDM
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Quantifying SD-PAMs emission reductions
 Process of choosing SD PAMs basket should look at GHG
impacts
 Without quantification of some kind, little more than CSD
submissions – limited coverage and substance Would not build much trust if not clearly reducing
emissions growth Rigor of assessment, however, may depend on scale andscope of SD PAMs (see trading issue below)
 Assessing impacts of policies, as opposed to projects, will
also necessarily be more uncertain
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Assessing SD impacts

 SD assessment, however, is much more challenging
than GHG assessment
 Recall CDM SD debate and monitoring requirements
 Compromise could be to assess direction qualitatively(checklist, public participation)

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Would SD PAMs be mandatory?
 ‘Bottoms up’ approach is fundamental to concept of SDPAMs
 Entirely voluntary approach, however, may not satisfy
Annex I that SD PAMs makes a real contribution to GHGabatement
As with other policy options, SD PAMs could be
mandatory for a group of countries
 Challenge is defining who must act

 Mandatory participation in SD PAMS is NOT the same as
mandatory implementation of a prescribed list of PAMs
 Could ensure comprehensive coverage by prescribing
sectors that must be addressed, but not the actual PAMs
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Would SD PAMs generate tradable credits?

 Some kind of trading could significantly increase resource
flows through SD PAMs
 However, trading would require much more rigorous
monitoring and institutional requirements for the hostcountry (Articles 5,7)
 Assessing policy and sectoral impacts more difficult
than project level impacts
 Without trading, SD PAMs would be similar to GEF
projects, which only attract limited funding but result in net
emissions reductions
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Monitoring and reporting requirements
 SD PAMs plans would be prepared by country focal points andsubmitted to the UNFCCC
 Included in National Communication?- many countries notsubmitting and process highly politicized Separate SD PAMs registry would be simple and clear, but
could add to institutional burden on developing country
 Monitoring and review would be mandatory once a country had
agreed to SD PAMs, even if taking on SD PAMs initially wasvoluntary Could piggy-back on in-depth review of National
Communications but with special SD PAMs expert group Frequency linked to National Communication
 Need to include qualitative assessment of SD impacts aswell as GHGs18ERC

SD-PAMs and post-2012
 By itself, does not guarantee environmental outcome (stillneed quantified mitigation commitments) …
 … but important in mobilising action

Only requires a decision by the COP, not a whole new ProtocolImportant as trust-building measure under the Convention
 Could happen in parallel to other approaches

 Together with tech transfer, finance, adaptation
 Turn climate from ‘threat’ to development into genuine
opportunity to make development sustainable for DCs
 Initially voluntary, could become mandatory later

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Conclusions
Start from development objectives, make development moresustainableFormalise through COP decision to establish SD-PAMs registry andreview

Important to build local capacity in developing countries

Bottom-up, trust-building approach Start with action rather than targets

If successful could lead to more realistic quantified mitigationcommitments for DCs

Quantify emissions reductions versus “current policy” baselineAssess SD impacts qualitatively

Allow host country to choose SD PAMS, with menu as reference

Separate SD PAMs registry with UNFCCC Secretariat



Mandatory monitoring, reporting, and review of SD PAMs20ERC

Stanford A.J Mwakasonda
Energy Research Centre
University of Cape Town
stanford@erc.uct.ac.za
www.erc.uct.ac.za