| Overview : Namibia's updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) reflects the country’s continued ambition to the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement, which is to keep the rise in global average temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Namibia is committed to combating climate change through acceleration of the transition to a climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable mode of development. In line with this commitment, Namibia’s Updated NDC contains bold targets to raise its mitigation ambition from 89% committed in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) in 2015 to 91% in the updated NDC of 2021. The most dominant energy source in Namibia is liquid fuel. It includes petrol and diesel and accounts for about 63 % of total net energy consumption, which is mainly used in the transport sector, followed by electricity with 17 % net consumption, coal with 5 % and the remaining 15 % from renewable sources such as hydro, solar, biomass and wind among others. The transport sector consumes more energy than any other productive sector of the Namibian economy. Liquid petroleum products for transport constituted over 70% of Namibia’s total energy demand (BUR4, 2021). Rolling out electric vehicles in Namibia will directly contribute to the ambitious updated NDC that targets replacing diesel- and petrol-powered vehicles with 10 000 electric vehicles by 2030. This will translate into 7.00 Gg CO2-eq or 0.32% GHG emission reduction against the business as usual. Implementing the NDC actions on electric vehicles is a conditional ambition requiring external support. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) being the climate change coordinating institution and National Designated Authority (NDA) for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other multilateral funding mechanisms, has received a request to facilitate a proposal aimed at implementing a strategy to accelerate adoption of electric vehicles in Namibia. This request was pioneered in March 2022 by Sybrand de Waal, a 17-year-old matric learner at Windhoek High School (WHS), with a keen interest in electric vehicles. He has a dream of increasing electric vehicle uptake in Namibia to contribute to achievement of NDC targets in the transport subsector. The proposal has put across possible systemic measures for accelerating the replacement of diesel and petrol vehicles with electric vehicles as contained in the detailed annex. |
