Latvia Joint Implementation Strategy as defined in the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2002-2012)

The Latvia Joint Implementation (JI) Strategy as defined in the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2002-2012) is a multi-sectoral document. Its main objective is to promote elimination of climate change by attracting investors to projects aimed at GHG emissions reduction.
In order to increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the JI Strategy aims to carry out procedures to assure that Latvia conforms with the JI Track 1 requirements (see below); to develop the necessary legal acts, to create the institutional system and implement the related activities; to define tasks of institutions involved in JI projects and their interoperability to support the JI cycle; to identify deadlines, responsible entities and the needed financial resources to implement activities. Experience shows that investor countries are interested in the projects where the JI component (i.e. additionality costs) is not less than one million Latvian lats and which normally corresponds to 10–20% of total project costs. This means that JI projects will promote drawing of 5–10 times bigger financing. Potential JI projects for the next three years might lie in the area of higher CO2 removal levels in forestry, biogas collection and further use in household waste disposal sites, biogas collection and further use in farms, replacement of fossil fuels with the renewable resources, including water, sun and geothermal energy and biofuel, use of new efficient, environmentally friendly technologies in energy industry.
The Kyoto Protocol and decisions passed by the conferences of the Parties form the regulatory base of JI projects. They foresee two types of implementation or tracking of JI projects on the national level. If the host country matches the eligibility criteria (see Annex 1 of this document), it may identify and use the country’s own modalities for calculation of baseline scenarios of projects, to certify emissions reduction and issue ERU (Track 1). Conversely, the second procedure (Track 2) is applied if the host Party does not meet all the eligibility requirements. In such cases, the procedure of baseline setting and certification of emissions reduction is supervised by the Supervisory Committee.