Supporting Congo to advance their NAP process

The Republic of Congo is landlocked apart from a small stretch of Atlantic coastline in the south west. Floods are already a recurring natural hazard, and many areas are seasonally flooded. Projected increases in precipitation as well as sea level rise as a result of climate change will likely increase the frequency in flooding, exacerbating their effects on human settlements, agriculture, and biodiversity. Climate change is also posing a direct threat to public health through water borne and vector borne diseases, which are both influenced by climatic factors and are currently the country’s leading two causes of mortality.

 

In an attempt to build resilience to climate change, the Republic of Congo has been assessing its vulnerabilities and put forward its commitments, as well as communicated those to the international climate change community through submitting its First National Communication to the UNFCCC in October 2001, and later submitting a Second National Communication in 2009, its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) in 2015, and finally ratifying the Paris Agreement in 2017. The INDC outlines that the Congo’s contribution to the Paris Agreement will take into account its existing strategies and plans, including the National Development Plan, the Strategy Paper for Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction, and the National Strategy and Implementation Action Plan. This set of policy documents and institutional framework maps out how the Congo can pursue the Sustainable Development Goals and strive to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. The NDC also outlines that the key areas that climate change adaptation interventions should focus on are: agriculture; coastal zones; cross-cutting areas; disaster risk management; education; energy; environment; and health.