On 27 February 2025, in a workshop that brought together national stakeholders in Algiers, Algeria officially launched an ICAT project aiming to strengthen the country’s climate transparency mechanisms. 

As a developing country that is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and also a fossil fuel producer, Algeria faces a significant challenge to balance economic and social development with reducing emissions and adapting to climate change impacts. Algeria’s success in its climate ambition and effective contribution to the global fight against climate change depends on a reliable supply of quality data on greenhouse gas emissions and removals, climate impacts, and progress against climate change-related targets. 

Algeria’s Minister of Environment and Quality of Life, Nadjiba Djilali, during her address at the workshop.

The project will build national capacity and support Algeria’s efforts through improved data for tracking climate action and the development of evidence-based policies and measures. More specifically, the project has the following objectives:

• Strengthen institutional arrangements: The project will enhance Algeria’s climate data measuring, reporting, and verification system by improving its institutional and legal framework. This will include an analysis of existing institutions, stakeholder mapping, and recommendations for better coordination and efficiency.
• Improve greenhouse gas inventory data: By enhancing the data collection and management for key sectors like energy, agriculture, and waste, the project will improve the quality of emissions data and strengthen national capacity to produce the biennial transparency reports required under the Paris Agreement.
• Enhance the data quality and information for Algeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): The project will update Algeria’s greenhouse gas emission scenarios for 2030 and 2050 in key sectors using the GHG Abatement Cost MOdel (GACMO). It will train national experts to improve emissions projections and support Algeria’s NDC update process.
• Improve the monitoring of policies to implement NDC targets: The project will enhance the framework for tracking renewable energy and energy efficiency policies in line with Algeria’s NDCs. This includes defining indicators to assess impacts on sustainable development and greenhouse gas emissions, improving Algeria’s ability to monitor progress against its climate commitments.

Thanks to these improvements, Algeria will be better positioned to take targeted action to achieve its NDC targets of effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to a greener economy. 

Achieving the above requires a highly participatory and coordinated approach. With this objective in mind, the launch workshop served as an opportunity to gather representatives of Algeria’s key sectors for climate action. Ministerial representatives and experts presented the ICAT project’s work plan, implementation methodology, and data requirements while outlining the project’s next steps and inviting participant feedback.

The event also served as a platform to emphasize the importance of enhancing climate transparency beyond reporting as a basis for evidence-based policies and measures. Participants recognized that using and sharing quality climate data and information are part of best practices for driving progress toward effective climate action and sustainable development targets.

Algeria’s Ministry of the Environment and Quality of Life is leading the project implementation, with support from international climate transparency experts from UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre.

Photos: Ministry of the Environment and Quality of Life of Algeria