Identify roles and responsibilities for LEDS process
Stage 1
- 1.0. Organizing the LEDS Process
- 1.1. Institutional Structure for LEDS
- 1.2. Workplan to Develop the LEDS
- 1.3. Roles and responsibilities to develop LEDS
- 2.1. Assess current country plans, policies, practices, and capacities
- 2.2. Compile lessons learned and good practices from ongoing and previous sustainable development efforts in the country
- 2.3. Assess public and private sector capacity to support initiatives
- 2.4. Assess and improve the national GHG inventory and other economic and resource data as needed for LEDS development
- Greenhouse Gas Inventory Development Toolkit
- 3a. Analytical Decision Making - Developing BAU Scenario
- 3b. Analytical Decision Making - Assessing Opportunities
- 3b.1. Assess technical potential for sector technologies
- Renewable Energy Technical Potential Toolkit
- Building Energy Assessment Toolkit
- Power System Screening and Design Toolkit
- Land Use Assessment Toolkit
- Bioenergy Assessment Toolkit
- Transportation Assessment Toolkit
- 3b.2. Assess economic and market potential of technologies and initiatives
- Clean Energy Market Analysis Toolkit
- 3b.3. Prioritize development options
- 3c. Analytical Decision Making - Developing and Assessing Low Emissions Development Scenarios
- 3c.1. Develop low emissions growth scenarios
- 3c.2. Assess institutional framework for LEDS
- Financing Initiatives Toolkit
- Policy and Program Design Toolkit
- 3c.3. Assess in-depth contributions of selected scenarios to goals across sectors
- Land-use Scenario Analysis Toolkit
- Energy System and Scenario Analysis Toolkit
- 3c.4. Perform multi-criteria impact analysis and assess stakeholder responses
- Clean Energy Impact Assessment Tool
- Sustainable Land-use Impact Assessment Toolkit
1.3 Roles and Responsibilities to Develop LEDS
1.3.1 Create process for stakeholder engagement
To promote broad participation and support among the public and other stakeholders, the country planning groups can develop a consultation strategy. The consultation strategy can target a wide range of stakeholders and can include indicators for implementation. The consultation process may include:
- Determining the best way to involve stakeholders throughout the development and implementation of the LEDS
- Developing stakeholder engagement plans and beginning the engagement process
The South Africa Long Term Mitigation Scenarios development process provides a strong example of diverse and sustained stakeholder engagement. Figure 1 provides a mapping of how the stakeholder engagement process was organized in South Africa.
LEDS have the potential to deliver significant social and environmental benefits; however, they may also have detrimental effects on certain communities, particularly indigenous people, small holders, forest-dependent communities, and marginalized and/or vulnerable groups. Creation of the LEDS through a transparent process can help to ensure social and environmental safeguards are incorporated to minimize, or duly compensate, social or environmental negative consequences. Further, identifying opportunities to create social and environmental benefits is an important consideration. Useful guidance documents on social and environmental safeguards include:
1.3.2 Establish a plan to engage and sustain national leadership for LEDS
The success of a country’s efforts to prepare and implement a low emission development plan will hinge largely on the degree of participation and support from national leaders in all phases of the planning process. Country teams may want to develop an explicit strategy for maintaining strong engagement of national leaders throughout the process. This strategy can include the following elements, which have proven to be effective in similar national planning activities:
- Government and non-government leaders are appointed to serve on a high level steering committee by the head of state or appropriate minister.
- This national leadership committee meets on a regular basis (e.g., every 2-3 months) to review progress and provide feedback on the strategic direction of the work. The schedule for these meetings should be defined at the start of the work.
- This committee is co-chaired by the highest ranking officials possible from the government with responsibility for coordinating climate change and economic development programs across agencies (e.g., Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Economy or Commerce). Countries may also wish to consider having a prominent industry leader serve as a co-chair.
- Each of the leaders on this steering committee have staff participating on the primary stakeholder group who are informing them of progress, receiving their feedback, and preparing them for meetings of the high level committee.
- The steering committee schedules, in advance, a briefing for the head of state, lead minister or public conference to present the plan to ensure that there is an action-forcing milestone that they are all responsible for meeting.
- The members of the steering committee direct their staff to include policies and measures that are recommended under LEDS in the operating budgets and plans for the agencies under their jurisdiction.
- One member of the steering committee has responsibility for independent review of plan progress and identifying any key agencies or organizations whose participation or support is lagging, as well as other issues that may be impeding progress.
Planners can also review examples of effective national leadership activities in support of LEDS. One example of this type of activity is from Guyana: Presidential Address at Guyana Low Carbon Development Strategy Launch
1.3.3 Establish International Partnerships
There has been a proliferation of new programs across the globe focused on Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) and closely related issues, such as MRV and NAMAs. As a result of the number and scale of the various initiatives underway it will be critically important to ensure that these programs complement one another and avoid duplication of efforts through ongoing information exchange and coordination. Increased coordination will allow us to leverage the resources and expertise brought to bear by other agencies and programs, enable exchange of best practices and lessons learned, effectively engage both developing and developed country partners, and contribute to the achievement of our environmental and development goals.
The LEDS Global Partnership and the Coordinated Low Emissions Assistance Network (CLEAN) are working collaboratively to support coordination of LEDS activities among country partners, donors, and practitioners internationally.
Land Use Partnerships
International partners can assist countries in identifying aspects of their land management that are critical to address, identifying parts of other landscape and REDD+ initiatives that need further development, linking countries to international technical and financial assistance, and engaging the private and civil society sectors for feedback and support.
For example, if a landscape component of LEDS prioritizes increasing the financial viability of its timber industry while improving its environmental impact and reducing emissions, an international partner can identify relevant best practices. International partners can work with country officials to establish a customized process for implementing new industry standards and accessing market benefits (like Forest Stewardship Certification – FSC) for these sustainably produced goods.
Private Sector Partnerships
- CTI Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN)
- World Business Council for Sustainable Development