At the inception meeting held on 26 February 2021, ICAT and the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA) launched a 10-month project to help assess the impact of its climate actions, and prepare for tracking and monitoring of the country’s progress towards its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The government of Liberia, through its Environmental Protection Agency which is responsible for the coordination and preparation of the national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, continues to demonstrate its commitment to addressing climate change issues across the country. Targets listed in its NDC include, among others, reducing GHG emissions by at least 10 percent and improving energy efficiency by at least 20 percent by 2030 – with the long-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

To meet its NDC targets, the government has highlighted the need for further support to ensure that its measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system is strengthened in order to track progress toward the implementation of NDCs, including non-GHG co-benefits.

To help improve its MRV system, ICAT will provide technical support to ensure Liberia has adequate capacity to measure the impact and effectiveness of its climate plans, actions, policies and measures in the energy, transport and waste sectors, helping to strengthen evidence-based policymaking. The project will further enhance Liberia’s ability to apply good practice and relevant tools to integrate transparency on climate policies and actions, and assess their sustainable development impacts.

At the kick-off meeting, Deputy Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia, Hon. Randall M. Dobayou II said: “This ICAT project comes at a pivotal time. The additional support is very much welcomed and compliments our ongoing efforts to achieve our NDCs and long-term development goals.”  Hon. Dobayou reinforced the notion that “Transparency” is at the core to enhancing climate action, to which Liberia is fully committed. He was quick to note that the energy, waste, and transport sectors are critical to Liberia’s socio-economic development agenda as well as the full implementation of the NDCs.

Hon. Dobayou mentioned the enormous challenges that the three (3) sectors face which include, but are not limited to, the availability and access to renewable energy, sustainable low emissions in the transport sector as well as effective waste management. He furthered that the ICAT project wouldn’t have been initiated in Liberia at a time better than now to complement the revision of Liberia’s NDC and looks forward to additional support for Liberia beyond the completion of the project. He assured ICAT that Liberia will successfully implement the project.

Finally, Hon. Dobayou declared the ICAT NDC tracking and policy impact assessment inception meeting officially opened.

In addition to discussing the project in detail, roles and responsibilities were defined at the kick-off workshop and stakeholders had an opportunity to discuss the work plan. Over the coming months, ICAT will support a series of capacity building initiatives, assess climate change mitigation policies, and review NDC targets with the aim to assign indicators to help track progress across all three key sectors.

To this end, the Director of ICAT, Mr. Henning Wuester highlighted the potential for the tools and methodologies to be utilized by Liberia to link climate action and national development planning – a basis for mobilizing additional climate finance.

Arthur R.M. Becker, National Project Facilitator at the EPA stated that the project team will ensure strengthened sectoral engagement and coordination so that activities outlined in the ICAT work plan are effectively fulfilled. He concluded by stating that the ICAT Liberia project will work with ICAT and its partners to build on progress already made through other country driven initiatives to ensure effective NDC tracking and policy assessment for sustainable impacts and development in Liberia.

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