Day 3 Highlights: Way forward for Asia LEDS Partnership clarified

The Closing Plenary presented ideas as to how the Asia LEDS Partnership should proceed based on the needs and challenges that participants identified at the Asia LEDS Forum 2016.

HANOI, June 30, 2016 – Asia LEDS Forum 2016: Mobilizing Finance for Priority Actions successfully concluded yesterday with new commitments from the Asia LEDS Partnership Secretariat and LEDS Global Partnership (LEDS GP) Working Groups (WGs) on responding to identified needs by national and sub-national governments for NDC and LEDS implementation.

Day 3 started with a panel discussion on a number of mechanisms and opportunities for enhancing the impacts of NDC implementation, especially in relation to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include: (1) engagement with local and sub-national governments; (2) establishment of Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) processes for SDGs, as well as country-specific measures for sustainable development benefits; (3) leveraging the interlinkages between SDGs and climate change action; and (4) gender mainstreaming. The panelists also discussed how NDC or SDGs implementation does not become a ‘tick the box’ exercise, or how actions are led away from ‘lip service’ into something ‘truly meaningful.’

In the Closing Plenary, the Asia LEDS Partnership Secretariat and LEDS GP WGs presented ideas as to how their respective groups should proceed based on the needs and challenges that participants identified during the Forum.

The Asia LEDS Partnership, it was noted, has always been and will continue to be a ‘member-driven network’ and the needs and challenges identified at the Forum will shape the course of the Secretariat and WGs in the coming years. Proposals and commitments for action include: integration of national and sub-national actions; harmonization of country sectoral plans with NDCs; quantifying the benefits of LEDS actions; integration of climate and development benefits into narratives that motivate action; establishment of communities of practice; and capacity building for local governments on working with the private sector.

Key topics for engagement by th Asia LEDS Partnership with the LEDS GP WGs were also identified, which include:

• Deeper engagement with the private sector and promotion of methods to increase private sector participation in LEDS
• Strengthen coordination among ministries and between national and subnational governments, and improve transparency and knowledge management across agencies for efficient LEDS implementation
• Support on benefits assessment of NDC and green growth strategies to better understand impacts and inform policy design across sectors
• Support on identifying and designing financing instruments for LEDS and incentives for clean energy deployment
• Strengthen NDC transport goals and support for implementation of transport measures.

Read more:
Day 2 Highlights: Solutions for mobilizing finance presented in ‘deep dive’ training tracks
Management of Asia LEDS Partnership Secretariat formally transitions to ICLEI
Day 1 Highlights: Weak ‘enabling environments’, technical capacity limit investment on NDCs
Forum seeks to unlock finance for priority climate actions in Asia