Asia LEDS Partnership in collaboration with the LEDS GP Sub-national Integration (SNI) Working Group (WG)and with support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a workshop on ‘Multi-level Governance and the NDCs in Asia: Accelerating subnational implementation and raising national ambitions’ in Bangkok, Thailand on 23rd June 2017.

Teams of sub-national and national officials from four ALP countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Philippines and Vietnam, came together to enable peer-learning in accelerating implementation of NDCs through improving sub-national integration. Participants discussed the status of their NDCs implementation and the major challenges with sub-national integration in their countries.

Bhutan is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030 by maintaining their 60% forest cover as carbon sink which has been integrated in the country’s five year plan, but lacks coordination with the sub-national and local governments. Consultations happen only at the National level. The main challenge for the local governments in Bhutan is to implement the plan without requisite capacity and training, and with no proper background on the how and why the plan was developed.

Similarly in Bangladesh, targets and sector plans to implement NDCs lack sub-national integration. NDCs are being integrated with the next five year plan but no consultations with the local governments are taking place.

Vietnam representatives discussed about the data challenges they are facing in implementing their transportation sector NDCs. They believe good collaboration with the line ministries and stakeholders and increasing public awareness can significantly help them overcome this challenge.

In the Philippines, the Philippines League of Local Environment and Natural Resources Officers (PLLENRO), an NGO formed in 2009, is helping the Philippines governments in addressing the major challenge of capacity building. PLLENRO, with support from organizations like USAID and ICLEI, provides technical training to the municipal staff to develop GHG inventories. This has empowered the local governments to develop a measurable baseline, set targets and to better plan across all sectors.

The workshop brought out cases of good practices along with issues and areas of support which ALP through its REAL assistance would take forward. A policy paper co-authored by all the participants is expected to be developed and disseminated through ALP channels to promote experience sharing and peer-learning for other countries.