International Support for Domestic Action Mechanisms to Facilitate Mitigation in Developing Countries

The report argues that domestic ownership is essential for low-carbon transitions and proposes a framework combining low-carbon development strategies, NAMAs, tailored international support mechanisms, and robust monitoring and reporting. It details specific mechanisms for technology cooperation and financial support, while providing case studies from Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, and India to illustrate barriers such as financing, regulatory gaps, and technical capacity. The document emphasizes that international support should shift from purchasing cheap carbon offsets to creating long-term enabling environments for private sector investment.

• Effective climate cooperation requires four underpinning components: low-carbon development strategies to outline economic and emissions trajectories, Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to shift specific sectors or technologies, tailored international support mechanisms for capacity and finance, and detailed monitoring and reporting for transparency and learning.
• International support for technology cooperation should be tailored to a country's development level and the technology's stage. Low-income countries typically need support for the capacity to operate, maintain, adopt, and regulate, while higher-income countries may focus on R&D cooperation and the capacity to innovate.
• Financial support mechanisms should shift from the goal of purchasing cheap carbon tonnes to creating long-term visions for low-carbon development. Public finance is viewed as an essential catalyst to attract large volumes of private sector investment by contributing to incremental costs and enhancing regulatory stability.
• Quantitative reporting must expand beyond greenhouse gas emissions to include input, process, and output indicators. This allows for the early identification of implementation problems and facilitates international learning, as emission levels often respond with long delays to policy actions.
• In Ghana, the potential to avoid at least 14,000,000 tons of CO2 emissions over the lifetime of renewable energy projects depends on removing barriers such as the lack of a critical mass of human capital, inadequate regulatory frameworks, and high costs of capital.
• A large-scale rollout of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in South Africa could save 3,850 Mt CO2-eq between 2010 and 2050, but requires overcoming barriers in technology innovation, grid expansion to link north-western areas to consumer centres, and regulatory uncertainties regarding the Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT).
• Brazil's National Plan of Logistics and Transport (PNLT) could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the freight transportation sector by more than 40% compared to a business-as-usual scenario, provided that barriers like the bi-taxation of intermodal transportation and the dominance of road travel are addressed.
• In South Africa, energy efficiency in low-income housing is hindered by a disconnect between policy and implementation capacity. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is deemed an unsustainable model for these projects because carbon savings are small and dispersed relative to high initial capital costs.
• The replacement of approximately 16 million inefficient agricultural pump sets in India faces financing as the most critical barrier, as high prices for efficient pumps and flat electricity tariffs encourage farmers to purchase cheaper, inefficient equipment.

APA

Neuhoff, K., Bazilian, M., Hourcade, J. C., Rysanek, A., Cooper, S., Iliev, I., Singh, A., Cosbey, A., Jackson, H., Sykes, J., de Coninck, H., Laing, T., Urban, F., Edkins, M., Lester, S., Real, M. V., Fankhauser, S., Filho, H. M., Ward, J., ... Zhang, X. (2009). International Support for Domestic Action Mechanisms to Facilitate Mitigation in Developing Countries. Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/isda-policy-summary-220909.pdf

Chicago

Neuhoff, Karsten, Morgan Bazilian, Jean Charles Hourcade, Adam Rysanek, Simone Cooper, Ilian Iliev, Anoop Singh, et al. International Support for Domestic Action Mechanisms to Facilitate Mitigation in Developing Countries. Climate Strategies, 2009. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/isda-policy-summary-220909.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{neuhoff2009international, author = {Neuhoff, Karsten and Bazilian, Morgan and Hourcade, Jean Charles and Rysanek, Adam and Cooper, Simone and Iliev, Ilian and Singh, Anoop and Cosbey, Aaron and Jackson, Helen and Sykes, Judith and de Coninck, Heleen and Laing, Tim and Urban, Frauke and Edkins, Max and Lester, Sarah and Real, Marcia Valle and Fankhauser, Sam and Filho, Haraldo Machado and Ward, John and Gboney, William and Marquard, Andrew and Winkler, Harald and Guerin, Emmanuel and Rajan, Ranjita and Wolcott, Sara and Zhang, Xiliang}, title = {{International Support for Domestic Action Mechanisms to Facilitate Mitigation in Developing Countries}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2009}, month = sep, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/isda-policy-summary-220909.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }