The Paris Agreement was adopted by over 190 countries during the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) held in December 2015 in Paris. The Agreement heralded many years of global climate negotiations, culminating in an agreement of a common roadmap towards mitigating the effects of climate change. This included reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and holding the global average increase in temperature to well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the average temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, while concurrently ensuring sustainable development and the eradication of poverty. One of the major elements that informed the Paris Agreement was the INDCs. At the 19th Conference of Parties (COP19) held in Warsaw, Poland, Parties took a Decision5 which called on all Parties to the Convention to develop, as well as communicate in a manner that provided clarity and transparency, their INDCs. This Decision required that Parties produce their INDCs well in advance of COP21, as well as in accordance with the objectives of the Convention and in line with Article 2 of the Convention. The contributions by Parties should be a progression beyond their current undertaking and without prejudice to the legal nature of such contributions6. These contributions were indications of “intentions” by all Parties of their ‘voluntary’ commitment towards combating the challenges of climate change through their domestic emissions reduction efforts. These “intentions” thereafter formed the basis for action of the Parties, which is now referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the Paris Agreement. The Agreement is expected to be legally binding on Parties that have ratified it. Recalling Decision 1/CP.20 paragraph 9-12 of COP20 in Lima, African countries were encouraged to consider components of adaptation and mitigation when communicating their INDCs8. All five EAC Member States complied with the inclusion of mitigation and adaptation components in their INDCs based on this Decision, as well as at the request of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). As of April 2016, and in line with the invitation and request by the COPs, a total of 161 INDCs were synthesized of the 189 Parties that communicated their INDCs. However, the cumulative effect of their implementation by 2025 and 2030 fails to meet the threshold of holding the global temperature increase within the scope of 2°C scenarios, let alone the 1.5°C threshold. From the total submissions, 53 African countries were among the Parties that communicated their INDCs to the UNFCCC Secretariat before the Paris Agreement was officially opened for signature in New York, April 22, 2016. All the EAC Member States are Parties to the Convention, and all submitted their INDCs to the UNFCCC prior to COP21. This study acknowledges that even though not all mitigation questions on NDCs of EAC Member States may have been answered, it will require continuous research and analysis as the implementation of NDCs is an iterative process and the content is subject to revision by the submitting Parties.
Download Free PDF View PDF
