Side Event at COP21: What are NAMAs and how is civil society engagement important for their success

The document reports on a COP21 side event regarding Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs). Speakers argued that NAMAs currently lack regulations on stakeholder engagement and environmental criteria, which undermines their potential for sustainable development. Case studies from Costa Rica and India illustrated how the dominance of the industrial sector and international agencies can marginalize civil society and informal workers, such as wastepickers. The event concluded that universal safeguards, including grievance mechanisms and transparent monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems, are essential to ensure NAMAs are community-led and effective.

• NAMAs face significant implementation challenges due to a lack of formal definitions, slow introduction, and an absence of regulations regarding stakeholder engagement and environmental criteria.
• To avoid the failures of previous climate financing mechanisms, NAMAs require universal safeguards, including genuine transparency, a clear monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system, and established grievance mechanisms.
• In Costa Rica, a waste sector NAMA project focused on capturing methane in three landfills was criticized for lacking civil society participation and focusing exclusively on the industrial sector.
• In India, NAMAs funded by GIZ in the waste sector have prioritized using waste in cement kilns, which undermines the informal wastepicker sector that recycles 10,000 metric tonnes of waste annually.
• There is a risk that the NAMA agenda is being driven by international agencies rather than local realities, particularly in 'supported NAMAs' which are more heavily influenced by donors than 'domestic NAMAs'.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2015). Side Event at COP21: What are NAMAs and how is civil society engagement important for their success. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/NAMA-Side-Event-Report_Final.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Side Event at COP21: What are NAMAs and how is civil society engagement important for their success. 2015. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/NAMA-Side-Event-Report_Final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Side Event at COP21: What are NAMAs and how is civil society engagement important for their success |date=9 December 2015 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/NAMA-Side-Event-Report_Final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatch2015side, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Side Event at COP21: What are NAMAs and how is civil society engagement important for their success}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2015}, month = dec, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/NAMA-Side-Event-Report_Final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }