Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) for Malawi.

This Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) is a multi-sectoral document aiming to represent the Government commitment to supporting global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon sinks to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and climate variability that cut across all socio-economic sectors. To achieve the goal, the document (i) prioritizes areas that spur national development resulting in the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhanced sink capacity; and (ii) provides direction for the required support for the implementation of integrated project briefs whose implementation will be based on approaches for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV). Priority areas identified for the NAMAs are (i) Agriculture; (ii) Land Use and Land Use Change and forestry; (iii) Energy; (iv) Waste Management; and (v) Industrial processes.
The document proposes mitigation interventions in the aforementioned sectors 1. Agriculture Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), aiming at (i) proper utilization of crop residues (rather than open burning) to increase soil fertility; (ii) efficient use of fertilizers; and (iii) enhanced reductions in savanna burning during the dry season; 2. Energy, aiming at (i) substitution of fossil based fuels with renewable energy sources; and (ii) reducing or eliminating avoidable energy losses during generation, transmission, distribution and end use equipment level; 3. waste, aiming at promoting technological approaches to mitigate GHGs in the sector such as (i) reduction of waste generation; (ii) use of landfill biogas; (iii) controlled incineration; and (iv) composting for organic manure; and 4. Industrial Processes and Other Product Use (IPPU), aiming at reducing cement consumption through (i) cement blend (using rice husks ash or coal ash); and (ii) use of stabilized cement-clay blocks in place of cement blocks.
Since Malawi adopted a generalized NAMA, instead of detailed project proposals, six project concepts have been formulated to capture most of the prioritized sectoral activities and objectives. The list of the NAMA concepts is as follows (i) Sustainable agriculture for improved livelihoods in Malawi; (ii) Sustainable Solid Waste Management; (iii) Community-based sustainable biomass production and utilization in Malawi; (iv) Promoting sustainable production and use of bio-fuels in Malawi; (v) Promotion of solar water heaters for domestic and institutional application; and (vi) Development of new hydro-electric power (HEP) generation capacity.
Improving incomes of smallholder farmers through agriculture development will lead to improve food security.
To make agriculture and forestry more productive and sustainable, identified NAMAs to be implemented through the project proposals are (i) changes in agricultural practices and systems that include integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, post-harvest handling and storage, water harvesting, watershed management, soil and water conservation, and irrigation farming; (ii) increasing agricultural diversification; (iii) promoting inter-cropping, mixed cropping, crop rotation to increase output per unit area; (iv) processing solid and liquid municipal and agricultural waste into energy and organic fertilizer; (v) promoting agro-forestry to support farmers on fodder and fertilizer; (vi) training livestock farmers in feed preparation so that animals in enclosures have year round feed; (vii) promoting composting; (viii) training farmers in bee keeping and honey production; and (ix) reducing deforestation and developing forest protection (i.e. promotion of solar water heaters and bio-fuels for domestic and institutional applications to reduce demand for firewood).
Measures to face rural poverty are (i) promote gasification technology for rural electricity; and (ii) identify sustainable clean energy solutions for rural areas using agro-processing wastes.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the interventions are (i) strengthening local and farmers institutions and organizations; (ii) promoting micro-finance schemes; (iii) increasing focus on risk sharing and risk reducing across the entire value chain; and (iv) assisting farmers to identify commercial crops for income generation.
Resilience of livelihoods to disasters will be increased by developing or enhancing climate information systems and early warning mechanisms as well as, of course, by the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.