In 2015, Lebanon pledged to unconditionally reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15% and enhance resilience by 2030 as a climate commitment in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. In the same year, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted and aimed at achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. These two multilateral processes overlap in more ways than one. It is therefore important to synchronize the implementation of both the climate change and sustainable development agendas to enhance the efficiency of implementation and maximize results through thorough synchronization.
Consequently, the NDC Support Programme aimed at assessing the linkages between the mitigation and adaptation sectoral policies that make up Lebanon’s NDC, and the SDG targets and sub-targets. To achieve this, the SDG Climate Action Nexus tool (SCAN-tool), developed under the umbrella of the NDC Support Cluster was used. The tool supports policy makers across different departments and state levels to identify and understand which climate mitigation and adaptation actions may impact specific SDG targets (http://ambitiontoaction.net/scan_tool/). Throughout the exercise, a collaboration with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers’ office and the UNDP SDG team was established in order to avoid duplication of efforts and for the results to be fully integrated.
As an example of linkage, the renewable energy policy can be linked to poverty reduction (SDG 1) since it seeks to reduce the cost of energy and provide more reliable service in remote areas. Similarly, negative linkages were also assessed, and the same policy negatively affects life on land (SDG 15) when it comes to large-hydropower’s impact on water ecosystems as natural areas are inundated to make space for the water reservoirs.
For each sector, an assessment of the positive and negative linkages was performed, with a summary for recommendations in upcoming policy-making. Moreover, suggestions on how to synchronize indicators was provided. This information was included in 12 integration sheets, which were validated by a stakeholder consultation:
Agriculture |
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Forestry |
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Energy |
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Renewable Energy |
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Energy Efficiency |
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Solid Waste |
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Solid Waste NAMA |
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Public Transport |
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Private Transport |
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Water |
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Biodiversity |
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Industry |