Pacific NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) guidelines

Abstract

The birth of the concept of NAMAs can be found in language agreed in the UNFCCC in the Bali Action Plan at the thirteenth Conference of the Parties (COP13) in Bali, Indonesia in 2007 on the subject of enhanced national/international action on mitigation of climate change. On the one hand, that developing countries should agree to undertake nationally appropriate mitigation actions, reflects the enormity of the global challenge to limit global warming to 2°C (or 1.5°C which is the position of PICs) and that action by developed countries alone will not achieve this. However, rather than representing some potentially burdensome new commitment to take mitigation actions – especially for small vulnerable countries like PICs which must prioritise adaptation – the emergence and evolution of ‘NAMAs’ since the Bali COP can be seen as opening a whole new window of international support for mitigation actions that sit under and fit with these countries’ broader sustainable development objectives.