Background and Objective
As the only Arab country with a parliamentary democracy and a modern constitution, Tunisia is an important partner country for the German government – including in efforts to mitigate climate change. In Tunisia’s nationally determined contribution (NDCs), the Tunisian government has set ambitious emission reduction goals. With the cement industry responsible for a large share of Tunisia’s greenhouse gas emissions, project activities thus focus on the cement sector. An additional goal is capacity-building for new market mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. These are to be more widely integrated into policy processes such as the NDC update and development of a long-term strategy.
Implementation
In Tunisia, the priority sectors for market-based instruments to mitigate climate change include industry (especially cement and nitric acid) and energy. Dismantling regulatory barriers is thus a key step. The project supports the establishment of a functioning monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system – a key prerequisite for market-based climate change mitigation instruments. In addition, innovative technologies (low-clinker and co-processing) are being piloted with the aim of making the cement production process more sustainable. The project also provides training on carbon markets and climate finance for a range of public sector stakeholders such as the Ministry of Environment and the Energy Agency (ANME) and also for the private sector. It also supports the development of new approaches and instruments in relation to the global carbon market. For example, the project team tries to match the Tunisian mitigation portfolio (needs and investment opportunities) with available funding resources for market-based instruments or result-based finance. Studies are being used to assess the potential for their use under Article 6 or on the voluntary offset market.
Milestones and Outlook
Through broad-based training, the Global Carbon Market project has enhanced market-mechanism-related expertise among stakeholders in the public and private sectors. It has provided support to the Tunisian government in making Article 6 a priority and in using regional dialogue as a means to actively participate in international-level negotiations. Tunisia is preparing for active involvement in the global carbon market. The project has been instrumental in establishing a centralised monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system in the cement sector, the aim being to prepare the sector for potential integration into the carbon market mechanisms beyond 2020.