SYSTEMS IN CHAD 

Chad is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change. While the country is not historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions that cause global climate change, it has made both international and national commitments to address climate change and enhance the country’s resilience. Since ratifying the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1993 and the Kyoto protocol in 2009, Chad has made steady progress on its climate action. 

Chad developed and submitted its first intended nationally determined contribution to the UNFCCC in September 2015. This was followed by ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2017. In the same year, Chad also adopted its national environmental policy and national climate change strategy. More recently, with support from ICAT and others, Chad has made progress on establishing a greenhouse gas inventory and developing its measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system to track implementation and impact of its nationally determined contribution (NDC). 

Chad submitted its revised NDC in October 2021. While the overall emissions reduction targets are less ambitious than in the first NDC, Chad now has clearly defined mitigation measures by sector, especially for energy and forestry. This work was supported by ICAT and application of the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Model (GACMO) to identify cost-effective mitigation policies and measures, develop the scenarios and estimate corresponding costs. The revised NDC also provides ranked actions for adaptation in the most vulnerable sectors, with increased scope and coverage and more clarity on expected impacts.

In Chad, ICAT support was provided for the development of the national MRV system and improved monitoring of the NDC. 

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) supports improved transparency and capacity building under the Paris Agreement. ICAT works closely with its partner countries to develop policy-focused, priority-driven projects that develop the information and data frameworks and related capacity to improve the implementation, tracking and enhancement of their NDCs and reporting. ICAT’s approach is country led.

ICAT began working with Chad in 2020, following an initial scoping phase to identify the country’s climate action transparency needs and priorities. During the scoping phase, it was highlighted that Chad lacked an institutional framework for a national GHG inventory and no institutional system had been set up to track Chad’s NDC implementation and impacts. 

ICAT partnered with Chad’s Ministry of Environment and Fisheries to work on the design of a national MRV system and to support revision of Chad’s NDC. The project has strengthened national capacity for MRV and identified indicators for monitoring implementation of Chad’s NDC. Technical support has been provided by three national experts (agriculture, land use/forestry and energy) and ICAT’s technical implementing partners for Chad, Citepa and the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute. 

Developing a national MRV system

The ICAT project supported Chad to develop a national MRV system, including the establishment of a national MRV agency, considered the best option to ensure climate transparency. The project has also helped to build capacity by training national experts on greenhouse gas inventory methodologies and developed a national NDC tracking system with clearly defined responsibilities. 

 first step for the ICAT project was to review Chad’s greenhouse gas inventory system. This was carried out by national consultants, who surveyed key stakeholders. This exercise found that essential statistics were not always available for each of the key sectors, and for some sectors data was scattered and not held together in one place. In addition, documentation had not been produced systematically and data had not been properly archived. These findings reflected shortcomings in sectoral information systems, requiring technical and material capacity building aimed at setting up solid and sustainable databases. 

Following stakeholder feedback on these findings, the team proposed establishing a national MRV system. This included setting up the institutional framework for the inventory system and establishing the roles and responsibilities of each actor in the system. The proposed system was discussed and adopted during an MRV stakeholder workshop held in December 2020. It was also decided to establish a new national MRV agency to ensure sustainable funding from the national budget.

Although the proposal for Chad’s national MRV system was validated in December 2020, it has yet to be officially endorsed by the Government due to both institutional instability in the country and the long process of procedural approval during which the consent of all relevant ministries and the National Assembly is needed.

Supporting Chad’s revised NDC

Although the national MRV system has yet to be officially endorsed, ICAT’s work in Chad has included a strong focus on capacity building in greenhouse gas emission inventories and modelling. Data collection templates were developed for three sectors (agriculture, energy and land use/forestry) and national consultants worked with different stakeholders to collect data. This included working with stakeholders such as the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, the National Rural Development Support Agency, Ministry of Agricultural Development and others. In some cases where there was a clear lack of national data, decisions were taken to use international databases (e.g. for energy balance). 

Further, the application of ICAT’s Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Model (GACMO) helped to analyse Chad’s greenhouse gas mitigation options to define policies and measures for the updated NDC. To prepare for GACMO modelling, ICAT’s implementing partners presented the overall functions and usability of the tool. Approximately 40 people were trained from across various stakeholders to assess the emissions reductions and cost implications of individual mitigation actions included in the country’s NDC. 

ICAT’s support has directly informed Chad’s revised NDC, with the updated mitigation chapter drawing on the greenhouse gas inventory compiled under the ICAT project as well as on the scenarios built using GACMO, including a business-as-usual and two mitigation scenarios. Furthermore, all mitigation measures considered in the NDC now identify clear targets, indicators, and stakeholders responsible for data collection. This forms the basis of the national system for tracking NDC implementation.

Looking ahead

A final validation workshop for the ICAT project was held in December 2021 to present the results of the project as well as lessons learned. Key learnings included the need for regular data collection and updating of the national database to be able to regularly report to UNFCCC, the need for further training of national experts to retain capacity in data analysis and modelling, and the need to establish the national MRV Agency.

Moving forward, the next steps for Chad will be to fully operationalize and maintain its MRV system and formally endorse the national MRV agency to ensure data is monitored and reported on a regular basis. National MRV capacity should also continue to be built, with a focus on training national experts on issues related to the GHG inventory and indicator tracking. This will be essential for tracking NDC implementation and ensuring Chad is ready for its first Biennial Transparency Report in 2024.