UNEP and UNEP Risø Centre are engaged in providing financial and technical support to a number of countries working on Low Carbon Development Strategies (LCDS) and piloting Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs). From this engagement it is evident that there is a strong need for clarification both of the underlying terminology and possible approaches, and development of more detailed guidance and tools to assist the national processes.
Several initiatives by national, bilateral and multilateral actors are attempting to bring about this clarification and improved understanding, essentially combining practical application with normative development, and providing the experiences as input to the political negotiations being conducted under the UNFCCC.
This UNEP primer aims to contribute to this clarification by presenting the basic principles, proposing some possible elements of a national LCDS and NAMA preparation process, and providing a template for NAMA articulation.