Climate Investment as FAO Supports Lao PDR’s national scale mapping and prioritization contributing to Paris Agreement reporting.

A Consultation Workshop was held to support officials in developing a National investment pipeline to implement Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) priorities in agriculture and natural resources sectors on Tuesday December 8, 2020.

Implementation of Lao PDR’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) priorities in agriculture and natural resources sectors and national investment pipelines were the focus of the consultation workshop in the Lao capital Vientiane.

Contributing to the design and capacity for reporting on NDC for the agricultural sector, the workshop was attended by 40 participants from across sectors to the meeting co-chaired Deputy Director General of the Department of Climate Change Management of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Mr Immala Inthaboualy and FAO Representative to the Lao PDR, Mr Nasar Hayat.

“As we know, the implementation of the Paris Agreement requires us to identify required investments that may serve as the basis for expanding the portfolio of climate finance projects incorporating emission reduction and climate resilient approaches,” Mr Nasar Hayat said.

“The workshop first of all contributes to design and inform the capacity for the reporting on NDC for the agricultural and natural resources sectors in Lao PDR. The second objective is to develop an investment pipeline of projects linked to the agriculture priorities identified.”

Lao PDR became a signatory to the Paris Agreement in April 2016. In preparation, the country declared its intentions via the list of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). This NDC list has been revised and approved by the Department of Climate Change. 

Under the regional Technical Cooperation Project TCP/RAS/3604, the Lao PDR seeks to identify technical, institutional and financial needs to develop investment pipelines to support implementation of Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) priorities under the Paris Agreement for the agriculture sectors incorporating integrated approaches such as climate resilient and climate smart agriculture.

Objectives include to develop an investment pipeline of projects linked to the agriculture priorities identified. Finalizing the existing and pipeline investments in the agriculture and environment and natural resources sectors could serve as the basis for expanding the portfolio of climate finance projects.

Participants workshopped efforts include the matching of existing and pipeline investments to the NDC priorities for agriculture, land-use and environment and natural resources sectors.

Thee workshop helps participants to address capacity and investment gaps and identify needs for the environment and natural resources, agriculture, forestry, fishery and livestock sectors including the types and scales of investment and geographic target areas.