Background

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the focus of the political process to address Climate Change. The secretariat supports the Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement through a range of activities, including substantive and organizational support to meetings of the Parties.

In an effort to limit the impacts of climate change, several countries, through their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), are taking measures in reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions sufficiently to mitigate impacts of climate change and cost-effectively deliver the transition to low carbon societies. A growing number of Parties are considering Article 6 as an approach for implementing their climate action under the Paris Agreement, in their NDCs. Paris Agreement enables cooperative approaches, countries are putting in necessary implementation actions in place to enable participation in regional and global carbon markets for a variety of reasons, such as trading mitigation units, attracting funding for their mitigation actions, and achieving their targets more flexibly and more cost-effectively.

CIACA initiative was announced during COP22 in Marrakesh, with the objective to support Parties in the development of carbon pricing approaches and operationalising Article 6; to facilitate the NDC under the Paris Agreement while fostering collaboration. The initiative is jointly managed by the UNFCCC Secretariat and its Regional Collaboration Centres (RCCs).

The RCCs support national climate action through capacity-building, technical assistance, and strategic networking. Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, the RCCs have had the broader task of supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The UN Climate Change secretariat and its partner organizations operate six RCCs worldwide, of which RCC MENA and South Asia facilitates the acceleration of climate action in 30 countries in the region.

Under the CIACA initiative, one of the countries supported by the RCC MENA and South Asia is Iraq.

Purpose

The overall purpose of this assignment is to support the development of institutional arrangements in Iraq to enable the development of GHG mitigation activities under carbon markets. This will foster sustainable development, support the implementation of successive NDCs, and put the country on a low GHG emission pathway. The study will focus on building the institutional capacity of the organization “Economics Carbon” under the Ministry of Environment; by providing options for institutional arrangements, defining roles and responsibilities to fulfil their tasks and obligations under Article 6, creating frameworks for Article 6 operations, and outlining roles and decision-making processes to ultimately operationalize Article 6 in the country.

Outline of the Work

RCC MENA and SA and the Ministry of Environment of Iraq are working under the broader framework of establishing institutional arrangements for setting up an Article 6 framework in Iraq. Under this overall umbrella, and under the direct supervision of the Regional Lead of RCC MENA and SA, the short-term expert will work closely with RCC MENA and SA Article 6 and Carbon Pricing expert, to deliver the below specific tasks required to build the capacity of “Economics Carbon” under the overall oversight of Ministry of Environment of Iraq.

The incumbent will be responsible for the following tasks:

Task 1: Policy, Regulatory, and Legal Reviews

• List policy, regulatory, and legal documents specific to the sectors covered under the Iraq’s NDC, national inventory submissions to the UNFCCC, and previous carbon market-related activities.
• Assess Iraq’s readiness to engage in carbon markets, highlighting gaps, needs, and specific recommendations.

Task 2: Institutional Arrangement Assessments

• Review of existing Institutional Arrangements/Ministries relevant to carbon trading.

Task 3: Identify Opportunities, Barriers, and Approaches

Based on the macro-level analysis from Task 1 and Task 2, the expert will perform a detailed analysis/deep dive on the following aspects:

• Review existing and envisioned frameworks for operationalizing Article 6 and voluntary carbon credit markets.
• Review country’s Article 6 readiness and engagement based on various relevant research and stakeholder interaction.
• Conduct a deep-dive analysis of the country’s institutional setup, identifying barriers, gaps, and needs to foster Article 6 activities.
• Classify the country’s readiness based on engagement levels and potential for Article 6 activities.
• The analysis should include, but not limited to, the following: NDC targets (current and future, if available), intention to use Article 6 for NDC, ongoing Article 6-related activities, establishment of National Authorities (NDA, DNA), CDM experience, domestic carbon pricing, carbon markets (and other relevant economic instruments), and compliance with Article 6 provisions.

Task 4: Establishment of Institutional Arrangements for Article 6 framework

• Identify relevant institutions, legal mandates, roles, responsibilities, and obligations under carbon markets.
• Map the relevant institutions that could be linked with Economic Carbon, describing their roles and responsibilities.
• Engage with relevant ministries to conduct consultations, gather input on needs, expectations, and potential roles in the Article 6 framework.
• Create frameworks for Article 6 operationalization, including roles and decision-making processes for the Office of Economic Carbon.
• Roll out the institutional arrangements and begin implementation.

Task 5: A macro level examination of Article 6 opportunities and barriers on sectoral level assessments, activity type assessments, linking with the institutional arrangement assessments.

• Analyse opportunities in the country on a sector-wise basis, including but not limited to prioritization of mitigation projects in the following sectors:
  • CH₄ abatement
  • Cooling Sector such as District Cooling and linkage with Kigali Agreements
  • Desalination technologies
  • Renewable Energy
  • Regional grid integration and others
• Conduct activity-type assessments that align with NDCs and other country-specific considerations.

Outcome

RCC MENA and SA is supporting Iraq in developing institutional arrangements and decision-making processes for participation in Article 6. This short-term assignment is expected to result in:

• Recommendations to accelerate Article 6 related action in the country to foster institutional readiness and engagement.
• Proposals on specific sectoral priorities.
• A list of functions that could/should be allocated to existing and new bodies to manage all aspects (policy development, regulations, approvals, implementation, MRV, reporting) for operationalizing Article 6 in the country.

The short-term expert shall provide the following reports:

Timeframe

15 to 20 working days spread over 3 months, part-time. Lump sum compensation 6,000.00 USD.

Duty station and places of travel

 Remote

Requirements

The short term-expert should have

• Advanced university degree in environmental economics, energy economics, international relations, climate change or related areas is required. Additional 2 years of experience might be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
• At least 5 years of professional experience relevant to carbon pricing, carbon markets, economics policy and legal framework and green finance/climate finance.
• Detailed knowledge on UNFCCC climate change negotiations, with particular focus on Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement (including Article 6 and NDC Implementation).
• Knowledge of existing institutional structures and policy landscape in Iraq and wider MENA that is might be relevant to low carbon development.
• Experience working with government and non-state stakeholders in national and/or regional policy development and implementation of climate change activities in MENA region.
• Familiarity with the major climate change mitigation players in the target countries with proven networks within the government, private sector and civil societies in MENA is an asset.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking abilities.
• Fluency in English and Arabic and strong drafting skills.

Desired: excellent communication and presentation skills, including the ability to convey complex topics to a non-specialist audience.