Overview : Tanzania aspires to become a middle-income country by 2025 through sustainable economic growth. As set forth in Vision 2025, this transformation will require a transition from a “low productivity agricultural economy to a semi-industrialized one led by modernized and highly productive agricultural activities which are effectively integrated and buttressed by supportive industrial and service activities in the rural and urban areas.” To achieve this ambitious vision, there will be increased productions from key economic sectors, and increased generation and use of energy. Tanzania is planning to generate at least 5000MW of electricity by 2020 from the current 1500MW, to meet the expected increased industrial production and domestic demands. Both increased production and energy production and use are expected to increase the level of Greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and compound the problem of climate change. It therefore, it is key to ensure that the country has a proper system in place for the effective management of its GHGs emissions to be able to manage climate change impacts, which have continued to pose serious risks to the development, poverty reduction efforts and economic and social fabric of the country. In the last 40 years for instance, Tanzania has experienced severe and recurring droughts with devastating effects to agricultural, water and energy sectors among others. Tanzania’s ability to address the current and projected impacts of climate change is hindered by several factors including; inadequate institutional arrangements, inadequate financial resources, insufficient technological capacities, low awareness and inadequate climate change information management. Among others; Tanzania has developed the following policy documents to guide the national involvements in dealing with climate change. - The Environment Management Act (EMA) of 2004
- National Adaptation Programme of Action (URT, 2007)
- National Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (URT, January 2013)
- Tanzania REDD+ Strategy (2013)
While preparing its 1st national inventory of GHGs, the accuracy of the communication was negatively affected by many factors including: lack of expertize; inadequate institutions and institutional capacity and; lack of organized activity data. As part of efforts to improve the national communication problems, the Government of United Republic of Tanzania through the Vice President’s Office - Division of Environment in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and with funding from European Union and the governments of Germany and Australia has launched a Low Emission Capacity Building (LECB) Project with the following key outputs: Establishment of GHGs inventory management systems, Formulation of NAMAs and/or Low-Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) in the context of the national development agenda, Designing of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems to support implementation and evaluation of NAMAs and LEDS, Facilitating the design and adoption of mitigation actions by selected industries, and Supporting the design of the associated MRV systems for industrial mitigation measures. Overall, the project is aimed at enhancing the capacity of the Government in establishing appropriate mechanisms of support and coordination when addressing climate risks, strengthening technical knowledge of relevant officials to better understand and use climate information, and increasing generation and management of the relevant data to inform decision making process. To achieve output 1 “Establishment of National GHGs inventory management systems”, the document entitled “Development of a National GHGs Inventory Management System for Tanzania” was developed by the national and international consultants to inform the setting up of the sustainable GHGs Inventory System to be managed by the Vice President’s Office, in collaboration with the relevant institutions. Once operational, the System will support the Government of Tanzania to prepare high quality National Communications (NCs) and Biennial Update Reports (BURs), monitor GHGs emissions in various sectors, monitor achievement of various GHGs mitigation agreements as outlined in INDC in Paris, and effective planning as a sustainable path to achieve a low-emission development as per the country’s Climate Change Strategy. There are also opportunities under the LECB Project for enhancing the professional capacities and the level of knowledge of the national experts and partner institutions involved in the development of national GHGs Inventory, specifically in the light of the transition to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories in all sectors while developing the Fourth National Communication (to be submitted by July 2017) and the Second Biennial Update Report to be submitted by March 2018.
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