Law No. LP74/2024 “On climate action”.

This Law establishes the regulatory framework in the field of climate actions aimed at achieving the objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, in order to meet the long-term global temperature objective, as well as the regulatory framework for making progress towards achieving the global objective of adaptation to climate change. The purpose of this Law is to ensure the gradual and irreversible reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to protect human health, the integrity of ecosystems and biodiversity against the threats posed by climate change, to strengthen adaptive capacity, to reduce the vulnerability of society to climate change and to increase climate resilience, by applying the financial mechanism for setting the price for carbon dioxide emissions and the polluter pays principle. This law has the following objectives: (a) ensuring the development and implementation of policy and planning documents for the achievement of the objectives and national targets; (b) ensuring the planning of the allocation of the necessary financial means, in order to achieve progress on low-carbon development and increased climate resilience; (c) ensuring complete, current, transparent, accurate, coherent and comparable monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions; and (d) ensuring public access to information regarding planning in the field of greenhouse gas emission reduction and adaptation to climate change, developing policy and planning documents in the field of climate change mitigation and adaptation and evaluating their achievement. In order to achieve climate targets by 2050, the following principles apply: (a) the principle of establishing climate neutrality by 2050; (b) the principle of equitable and sustainable reduction of GHG emissions; (c) the principle of preventing environmental pollution; (d) the precautionary principle; (e) the polluter pays principle; (f) the principle of just and equitable transition; (g) the principle of joint commitments in carrying out planning activities, reporting and monitoring; and (h) ) the principle of transparency and accessibility of information and data. This Law contains VII Chapters divided into 61 Articles. Chapter I lays down general provisions. Chapter II establishes duties and responsibilities. Chapter III establishes objectives, intersectoral policies and measures related to climate action. Chapter IV regards monitoring and reporting related to GHG emissions. Chapter V regards transparency and funding. Chapter VI regards liability and control. Chapter VII lays down final provisions. This Law establishes competencies of different ministries and institutions in their respective fields of responsibility in relation to climate change. In particular, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry shall be responsible for assessment of climate risks in agriculture and the food industry and development of measures for adaptation and reducing the impact of climate change; establishment, in programmatic documents in the field of agriculture and rural development, intervention measures that contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change and adapting to them, including through reducing GHG emissions; cooperation with the Ministry of Environment through mutual exchange of information and data in the process of developing and updating the NDC, the strategic state policy document for long-term low-emission development; development of measures for land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) and in the field of agriculture; and integrating the concept of sound agricultural policy into the sectoral climate change adaptation policy with the aim of reducing GHG emissions. The Agency “Moldsilva” shall exercise the following powers: (a) coordinate the implementation of the principles of sustainable forest and forest fund management, ensuring alignment with policies for low-GHG-emission development and increased resilience to climate change; (b) assess risks related to the condition of vegetation and forests, ensuring that actions are aligned with progress in meeting the objectives of low-GHG-emission development and increased climate resilience, which are reported annually to the Environmental Agency; (c) participate in the development and implementation of the strategic state policy document on long-term low-emission development and programmatic documents on climate change adaptation; (d) within its competence, implement land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) policy; and (e) implement forest expansion policy and other actions aimed at promoting measures for forest expansion and restoration.