NAMIBIA’s Third National Communication (TNC) in terms of which the country monitors greenhouse gas emissions will be launched this morning at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek.

Namibia, as an active partner to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is required to prepare and submit regular national reports on how it deals with greenhouse-gas emissions.

The TNC is a three-year project aimed at ensuring that Namibia fulfils its obligations as a Non-Annex 1 Party to the UNFCCC.

Non-Annex 1 Parties are countries that have no emission reduction targets under the UNFCCC but are required to report how they are addressing climate change nationally.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism said the main components of the TNC are the inventory of greenhouse-gas emissions, measures to facilitate adaptation to climate change and measures to mitigate climate change.

It also entails increasing public knowledge and awareness about climate change, research and technology transfer, identifying constraints and gaps related to financial, technical and capacity need reviews.

The TNC will be launched at a workshop in Windhoek this morning. The main aim of the workshop is to officially start the implementation stage of the TNC project and to introduce the main components of the projects to stakeholders.

The project is co-funded by the Global Environment Facility.

*Absalom Shigwedha is a Namibian freelance environmental journalist.