Moldova to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 70 per cent till 2030

Chisinau, 28 January /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova commits to unconditionally cut the greenhouse gas emissions (GES) by 70 per cent against 1990 till 2030. Statements to this effect were made at a today’s national workshop on the consultation of the updated nationally determined contribution to the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions. Attending the event were representatives of the Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry (MADRM), Economics and Infrastructure Ministry (MEI), EU Delegation in Moldova and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).     

The participants in the meeting found out that, if Moldova receives technical, financial assistance and technological support from the international community (transfer of environmentally friendly technologies and efficient from the viewpoint of fighting the climate changes), the conditional level of reduction might be even up to 88 per cent against the level of the reference year (1990).   

These provisions are contained in the updated Nationally Determined Contribution of Moldova (NDC), elaborated in line with the provisions of the Paris Agreement. In the first act of NDC (2015), worked out with the joining of the Paris Agreement, the commitments of cutting the GES emissions were of 64-67 per cent in the case of the unconditioned scenario and, respectively, 78 per cent in the one of conditioned scenario.

„Although Moldova is responsible for less than 0.026 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is hit by the global warming, along with all countries. Forecasts show that the most vulnerable sectors to climate changes are agriculture, water resources, forestry, health, energy and transport; therefore, we will make efforts along with the international community, both to attenuate and adapt to the climate changes,” the MADRM state secretary, Dorin Andros, said.   

To keep the global warming within the limits of 2 Celsius degrees against the pre-industrial age, 197 countries signed the Paris Agreement. Under the latter, the signatory countries committed to update NDC once in five years, in order to monitor and assess the progress, respectively to establish more ambitious targets, in order to achieve the goals of the aforementioned Agreement.

„Once the European Green Deal adopted, the European Union will turn the environmental challenges into opportunities for development. The European Green Deal is really a component part of the European Commission’s strategy of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The investment in the tackling of the negative impact of the climate changes provides new significant opportunities for a sustainable and inclusive economic development. I am sure that it will eventually stipulate the creation of ecologically safe jobs and will consolidate the competitiveness, on the whole,” a representative of the European Union Delegation in Chisinau, Gintautas Baranauskas, said.      

„I am happy that Moldova has recorded the performance to be the first country of the Eastern Partnership to update its nationally determined contribution. Both UNDP and the European Union will continue providing support, in order to maintain this pace and to implement relevant climate actions which target zero net greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 and uncoupling the economic growth from the use of resources,” the deputy resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Andrea Cuzyova, said.    

The Nationally Determined Contribution was elaborated with the support of the EU4 Climate project, financed by the European Union and implemented by UNDP. With an overall budget of 8.8 million euros, the project is carried out in the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) on the period 2019-2022.