Republic of Moldova’s Intended National Determined Contribution.

This Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for Moldova is a multi-sectoral policy document at national level for the period of 2015-2030. The Republic of Moldova is fully committed to the UNFCCC negotiation process towards adopting at COP21 a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention, applicable to all Parties, in line with keeping global warming below 2°C. The Republic of Moldova intends to achieve an economy-wide unconditional target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 64-67 per cent below its 1990 level in 2030 and to make best efforts to reduce its emissions by 67 per cent. The reduction commitment expressed above could be increased up to 78 per cent below 1990 level conditional to, a global agreement addressing important topics including low-cost financial resources, technology transfer, and technical cooperation, accessible to all at a scale commensurate to the challenge of global climate change. The Republic of Moldova is a highly vulnerable country to the adverse impacts of climate change. Over the last 127 years, the Republic of Moldova has experienced changes in temperature and mean precipitation. The country has become warmer, with the average temperature increase greater than 1.0°C. At the same time, the Republic of Moldova has experienced an increased number of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods. The socio-economic costs of climate change related to natural disasters such as droughts and floods are significant.
Approach to accounting for agriculture, forestry and other land use: the Republic of Moldova intends to include all categories of emissions by sources and removals by sinks, and all pools and gases, as reported in the National Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks; to account for the land sector using a net-net approach; and to use a “production approach” to account for harvested wood products which is consistent with IPCC guidance. The Republic of Moldova may also exclude emissions from natural disturbances, as consistent with available IPCC guidance. There are material data collection and methodological challenges to estimate emissions and removals in the land sector. In compliance with IPCC Good Practice, the Republic of Moldova will continue to improve its land sector greenhouse gas reporting, which will involve the update of its methodologies. Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation in the Agriculture Sector at the national level it will be necessary to: (a) identify vulnerable areas and subsectors, assess the needs and opportunities of alternative crops, and change varieties as a response to climate change; (b) support agricultural research and experimental production for the selection of crops and development of the best varieties that are better suited to the new climate conditions; (c) improve the capacities for the adaptation to climate change effects through raising the awareness of stakeholders with agricultural advice and essential information on farm management; (d) assure increased investments in efficiency of irrigation infrastructure, aqua-technologies and improvement of water resources management; (e) develop irrigation plans based on a careful assessment of their impact, future water availability and water needs, taking into account the supply-demand balance; (f) create tools for risk and crisis management to cope with the economic consequences of climate related events. At the local/farm level, the following measures are important: (a) adapting of periods during which agricultural activities are carried out; (b) develop technical solutions to cope with extreme weather events, to protect the crops and livestock; (c) improve ventilation and air conditioning systems of livestock farms; (d) choose crops and varieties better adapted to changes in the growing season and to water availability, as well as greater resilience to new climate conditions; (e) crops adaptation by using the existing genetic diversity and new opportunities provided by biotechnology; (f) increase the efficiency of pest and disease control; (g) efficient use of water by reducing water losses, improving irrigation techniques, water recycling and storage; (h) improved soil management by increasing water retention to maintain the soil moisture; (i) landscape management by maintaining landscape elements that provide shelter to livestock; (j) introduce livestock species resilient to extreme temperatures and adapt the nutritional regime of livestock to demands caused by climate change; (k) popularization of new technologies addressing soil structure stability and soil treatment for enlarging the active layer of the root zone for enlarging water uptake; (l) runoff reduction by agronomic practices (no‐tillage can reduce water runoff); and (m) develop new complex agricultural water management programs (combining irrigation, fishery and excess inland water management).
The following climate change adaptation measures could be implemented in the Forestry Sector: (a) revision and development of new important components of the forestry regulatory basis, as integral parts of the forestry regime, focusing on: maintenance and conservation of forestry stations; conservation of forestry genetic resources; ecological reconstruction of forests; certification of forests, forest products and forest management systems; (b) revision of the regulatory framework pertaining to development of an appropriate financial mechanism in conservation and development of forestry resources, needed for expansion of lands covered with forestry vegetation etc.; (c) development and approval of the regulation on implementation and assuring functionality of the principles of participatory management of public forest resources; (d) increasing the forest cover, including in the climate change context mitigation and biodiversity conservation; (e) development and implementation of projects aimed at planting protection forestry strips (buffer zones) for agricultural lands protection, anti-erosional purpose, and for waters protection; (f) establishment of plantation forests to meet the needs of population in fuel wood for heating, cooking etc.; and (g) develop methodologies/technologies to assure forest ecosystems adaptability to climate change.
The future climatic changes were assessed over the three Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZs) (North, Centre and South) of the Republic of Moldova for the near term (2016–2035), midterm (2046–2065) and long term (2081–2100) given relative to the reference period (1986–2005). The Republic of Moldova’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy until 2020 and the Action Plan on its implementation have been recently approved through the Governmental Decision No. 1009 as of 10.12.2014. The vision of the Strategy is to develop and apply “a mechanism for adaptation to actual and potential climate change impacts, integrated and implemented across all sectors of the national economy so as to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to the effects of these changes”. The goal of the Strategy is ‘to assure that the Republic of Moldova’s social and economic development is less vulnerable to climate change impacts by becoming more resilient’. The general objective of the Strategy is oriented towards ‘increasing the capacity of the Republic of Moldova to adapt and respond to actual or potential climate change effects’. The three specific objectives of the Strategy are to: (1) create by 2018 the institutional framework in the field of climate change that would assure the efficient implementation of adaptation measures at the national, sector and local levels; (2) create by 2020 a mechanism to monitor the climate change impacts, the related social and economic vulnerability and for the management/dissemination of the information on risks and climate disasters; and (3) assure the development of climate resilience by reducing at least by 50% the climate change vulnerability and facilitate climate change adaptation in six priority sectors (agriculture, water resources, forestry, human health, energy and transport) by 2020.
Responding to the risk posed by climate change will require coordinated and focused efforts of the Government in view of promoting policies and measures at national and sector levels to prevent adverse climate change effects. The measures include understand climate risks and existing knowledge on climate change adaptation; assess institutional and policy implications of key threats posed by climate change; amend the existing and/or develop new sectoral strategies and action plans that are climate-resilient.
Continuous monitoring of climate change impacts at the national level allows for identifying the most likely evolution in this field, and providing opportunities for immediate action and decisions at the administrative level.