Second National Action Plan on Climate Change 2005-2008 (Republic of Bulgaria).

The Bulgarian Government has clearly demonstrated strong commitment and willingness to join the international efforts in mitigating climate change by ratifying the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention (KP). The Second National Plan on Climate Change (Second NAPCC) is a governmental plan to streamline and guide the efforts of the Bulgarian government in mitigating climate change. It is the continuation of the First National Action Plan on Climate Change, which was developed in the period 1996 – 1997 and approved in 2000. The first plan contained a coherent set of actions to help the country fulfill its commitments assumed by the ratification of the UNFCCC (1995) and the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. The economic growth of Bulgaria after the year 2000 along with changes in the international and domestic policy and the respective regulatory framework (most of which are driven by the upcoming accession to the European Union) required an update and extension of the First NAPCC. This resulted in the Second National Action Plan on Climate Change, which will be implemented in the period 2005 – 2008. In the process of updating the plan various stakeholders were consulted. These include mostly governmental institutions. In addition, representatives of business sector, NGOs and academia were also invited to provide input and feedback on proposed policies and measures. This approach secured transparency in drafting the NAPCC and the adequate consideration of the current political and economic conditions in the country.
The Second NAPCC starts with an introduction, explaining the purpose and scope of the NAPCC. This is placed in the light of the international efforts to combat climate change. To sketch the current setting and relevance, the historical trend in the change of greenhouse gas emissions in Bulgaria and the baseline scenario for future emissions development are presented, along with Bulgaria’s vulnerability to climate change. Because the EU accession is an important driver for climate change policies, the relevant EU policies and legislation in the different sectors of the economy are described. Furthermore, a description of the conditions and starting points for the implementation of climate change policy is given, including a discussion of the roles of the governmental institutions, and other stakeholders and target groups. In the NAPCC, the individual sector mitigation policies and measures are described in detail, including the estimation of the emission reduction and requirements for implementation. Since financing from flexible mechanisms is important for the realization of these measures, a special chapter is dedicated to the implementation of the Kyoto mechanisms Joint Implementation and International Emissions Trading, as well as to the introduction of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme for large industrial emitters in Bulgaria. In the final part, the effect of the policies and measures proposed in the plan are evaluated for the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol (2008-2012). Also an outlook until the year 2020 is provided to explore the long-term development of emissions. This development will be taken into account in establishing Bulgaria’s position in the upcoming negotiations on the post-2012 international climate regime.