Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.

This Intended Nationally Determined Contributions is a multi-sectoral policy document at national level for the period of 2015-2040. Notwithstanding its very low emissions of around 1.4 t CO2e per capita in 2015, Malawi as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has made firm decisions and plans to move the country’s development pathways towards a green economy based on national circumstances and capabilities. The country's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) was developed in direct response to decisions adopted at the 19th and 20th Sessions of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the UNFCCC. The INDC aims at achieving the objective of the UNFCCC as set out in Article 2 of the Convention and also contribute to sustainable development. The INDC has included issues of adaptation and community resilience, paying particular attention to the vulnerable groups and sectors.
Malawi's INDC targets reflect a consolidation and expansion of various climate change related initiatives that have been derived from policies, programmes, and projects, including those to promotes increased agricultural, forestry and fishery production in an environmentally sustainable manner. The Document proposes the actions such as: Support development of agriculture market based policies and legal instruments to shift decisions from financial to environmental decisions; Implementation of payment for ecosystem service for hydroelectric dams; Adopt eco-system services approach in the management of fisheries resources; Protect of fish spawning/breeding sites; etc.
The INDC further indicates that vulnerable and disadvantaged groups carry the burden of the impacts of climate change. Women and girls are particularly impacted. The INDC include adaption actions such as: Support capacity building programmes for vulnerable groups; Promote gender mainstreaming in policies, programmes and projects.
The INDC also promotes more inclusive and efficient agricultural systems through the actions below: Develop appropriate extension and training materials for climate resilient agronomic practices; Support research in drought tolerant and fast growing tree species; etc.
Because of the country’s vulnerability to climate change, there is the urgent need to undertake interventions to enhance the resilience of productive sectors. Regarding to the mitigation issues, the mitigation actions proposed in the INDC include: 1. Agriculture sector: Upscale the dissemination of climate resilient agronomic practices to above 10% of current cropland; etc. 2. Forestry and land-use sectors: Afforestation, reforestation and forest conservation and protection of catchments; Promotion of non-extractive livelihoods from forest; Upscale the non-extractive livelihoods from forest; Promote sustainable production of fuel wood by establishing woodlots plantations and forest management; etc. Regarding to adaption issues, the priority sectors and thematic areas identified based on national development priorities include agriculture (crops, livestock, fisheries), water resources, health, infrastructure, landuse planning, transport, population and human settlements, disaster risk management, forestry; wildlife, energy and gender. The biggest adaptation challenge is Malawi’s heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture. The majority of smallholder farmers cannot afford irrigation technologies despite the fact that Malawi is endowed with abundant water resources. The adaption actions proposed in the INDC include: 1. Agriculture sector: Increase irrigation at smallholder level; Increase land under irrigation through Greenbelt initiative from 20000 to 40000 ha; Expanded programmes of Greenbelt intiative from 40000 ha to 10000 ha by 2030; Build adaptation capacity in climate resilient agronomic practices for smallholder farmers; Promote on-farm water conservation technologies; Support an expanded programme of constructing multipurpose dams for irrigation and aquaculture; Develop financial mechanisms to support crop insurance targeting smallholder farmers; Promote the growing of drought torelant crop varities; Implement conservation agriculture and agroforestry practices; Promote improved land use practices; etc. 2. Forestry sector: Expand afforestation and forest regeneration programmes; Promote growing of drought tolerant and fast frowing tree species; etc. 3. Wildlife: Provide watering points at strategic locations of national park/ game reserve; Implement diseases control programmes; Support capacity building in wildlife institution to lead in adaptation initiatives e.g. translocation and culling. 4. Fisheries: Capacity building in aquaculture and cage culture fish farming practices; Promote aquaculture and cage culture fish farming practices; Maintain fingerings for stocking lakes and rivers after severe droughts episodes; etc.