At this year’s Innovate4Climate Conference, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) organized a workshop called “Global Cooperation for Transformative Change and Ambition Raising”. In the workshop, panelists discussed the NACAG approach and its transferability to other sectors.
In his speech, Dr. Karsten Sach (Head of Division for International Affairs, Europe and Climate Protection, BMU) highlighted that NACAG is following an innovative approach by combining pre-2020 climate finance with safeguards to ensure the permanent reduction of N2O emissions from nitric acid production. Vera Scholz (Head of Division for Climate, Environment and Infrastructure, GIZ) further emphasized the potential of the NACAG approach to accelerate ambition raising on a global level.
Two international NACAG members joined the event and contributed to the discussion. Nino Tkhilava (Head of the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Georgia) stressed that nitrous oxide emissions from nitric acid production constitute 5% of GHG emissions in Georgia, meaning that reducing these emissions significantly contributes to reducing Georgia’s overall emissions. Mohamed Chaabouni (Director for Environmental Management, Group Chimique Tunisien, Tunisia), a representative of the nitric acid plant operator in Tunisia, introduced the private sector perspective on the NACAG approach, highlighting the importance of the initiative for the sector’s transformation.
All speakers agreed on the huge potential to transfer NACAG’s approach to other sectors and encouraged stakeholders to start reflections on this topic.
