Albania Committed (INDC) on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by Dr Lorenc Gordani, 12th June 2017
Albanian deep and structural process of reform in the energy sector has seen in the 2016 an acceleration pass also toward achieve the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC as set out in Article 2 of the Convention. Intended Nationally Determined Contribution following decision 1/CP.19 and decision 1/CP.20 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) invited Parties to communicate the UNFCCC Secretariat their INDCs. Thus, the INDC of Albania will represent a baseline scenario target to the scenario period of 2015 or 2016 – 2030.
The above is also complete by the Article 13 of the Energy Community Treaty, which sets out that “[t]he Parties recognise the importance of the Kyoto Protocol. Each Contracting Party shall endeavour to accede to it.” Although this does not constitute a legal obligation under the Energy Community Treaty, there are certain steps occurring in the climate domain, as confirmed by the European Commission’s progress reports, which are pertinent to this report.
According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) data, all Contracting Parties have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and all of these countries with the exception of Serbia and Ukraine have done so via accession. However, there has been no or very limited progress reported from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, Kosovo and the institutional framework within these Contracting Parties remains very weak.
Albania has ratified both the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol with the status of a Non-Annex 1 Party. In the International Climate Change talks Albania has associated with European Union positions and within the restrictions of being a Non Annex I party committed to implement ‘National Appropriate Mitigation Actions’ – NAMAs.
Albania’s contribution to the global greenhouse gas emissions is relatively low, estimated at an average of 9,4 million ton/year of CO2 eqv. This is because over 95 percent of Albania’s electricity is produced from hydro sources and high-energy intensity industries are no longer operating. This would also mean that Albania’s greenhouse gas emissions allows to have a smooth trend of achieving 2 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per capita by 2050, which can be taken as a target for global contraction and convergence of greenhouse gas emissions.
| Estimated GHG emission savings from the use of renewable energy (t CO2eq) | 2013
Year n-1 |
2012
Year n-2 |
| Total estimated net GHG emission saving from using renewable energy | 6,788,309 | 5,240,989 |
| – Estimated net GHG saving from the use of renewable electricity | 4,752,450 | 3,971,573 |
| – Estimated net GHG saving from the use of renewable energy in heating and cooling | 1,736,065 | 1,504,745 |
| – Estimated net GHG saving from the use of renewable energy in transport | 280,631 | 232,523 |
Transportation (mobile sources) followed by agriculture and waste sector are the main categories that are found to have significant contribution to the total greenhouse gas emissions for Albania. The contribution of renewable energy sources in the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases, has been made, so-called avoided CO2 emissions due to the use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. The avoided emissions is determined in a manner that the amount of electricity from renewable energy sources, the amount of renewable energy for heating and cooling and renewable energy in the transport, is replaced by fossil fuels and their respective CO2 emissions.
Disclaimer: The ownership and the opinion expressed pertain to their authors. While all the effort are made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations may differ and should be discussed with an expert. For any specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, contact us through “lorenc.gordani@euroelektra.al”.
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