Enhancing Greenhouse Gas Management in Tunisia

Background and Objective

With annual emissions of around 4.1 tonnes CO₂-equivalent per capita, Tunisia’s greenhouse gas emissions are still below the global average. Nonetheless, the country’s emissions have risen steadily in recent decades, largely due to greater demand for energy to provide cooling and air conditioning, and also for industrial processes and transport. Having recognised the situation, the Tunisian government has become an active promoter of climate change mitigation measures. To date, Tunisia has not had the technical and administrative resources needed to manage its greenhouse gas emissions itself or to participate in international processes overseen by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). States wanting to benefit from international support must have an MRV system in place to ensure reliable measurement (measuring/monitoring), reporting and verification of their greenhouse gases. Against this backdrop, GIZ in collaboration with BMU developed both a robust greenhouse gas inventory tool for use in reporting as prescribed by the UNFCCC and an MRV system for nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) in the energy sector.  

Implementation

The following steps led to the successful creation of a greenhouse gas inventory tool and an MRV system to support Tunisia’s climate action efforts:

• Evaluation of the existing database and information systems, and analysis of institutional processes and structures to identify national needs. This enabled the development of improved strategies in collaboration with the respective authorities. 
• In collaboration with international experts, training courses and workshops on use of the new tools were held to provide initial and further training of specialist and management staff in the responsible institutions.  South-South exchange events encouraged knowledge transfer activities with other countries. 
• The processes involved in conducting and maintaining greenhouse gas inventories and MRV systems were set out in guidelines and handbooks to help Tunisian specialists in their work.
• For test purposes, a pilot MRV system was developed and used in selected mitigation activities, such as targeted expansion of solar facilities, in the energy sector. The results and experience gained in those tests were used in developing the MRV tool.

Results and Outlook

Managers at the ministries and authorities responsible for the energy, industry, agriculture and waste management sectors were sensitised to the new challenges faced, and the institutional structures needed to accommodate a sustainable inventory system were put in place. Staff at various authorities attended training courses and informational events on the topics of energy balance calculation, MRV of mitigation measures and conducting greenhouse gas inventories, giving them the fundamental skills needed to sustainably manage greenhouse gas emissions. The existing databases and information systems were evaluated and a detailed action plan was developed with the aim of improving both. Tunisia now participates in an international project to develop pilot MRV systems and in this way contributes to the development of international guidelines on MRV of mitigation measures.