Ecuador

Country related projects

Ecuador : Six senses Galapagos
Ecuador : Waste Project Portoviejo
National Context

Ecuador is part of the Andean region, located in the North East of South America. The country is considered one out of the seventeenth most diverse countries on earth. Ecuador´s population is of over 17 million people.

 

Ecuador is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its social, economic and environmental conditions. The Third National Communication showed that Ecuador is projected to have more frequent and intense rainfalls as well as extreme temperatures. Some of the impacts are:

  • Intense droughts that have affected 66.7% of the total agricultural land in the country and 53% of pastures.
  • Extreme rainfall events have caused flood in 15.9% of the national surface area where 49.5% of the population is settled.
  • The snow in our volcanos have lost at least 40% of their surface area over the past fifty years.

 

Ecuador is ambitious and committed to the international efforts to tackle climate change. In 2012, it unveiled its National Climate Change Strategy for 2012-2025. The strategy identified and prioritized eight adaptation sectors (Food security and agriculture, health, strategic sectors, natural heritage, hydric heritage, vulnerable groups, human settlements and risks management) and five mitigations sectors (Agriculture, AFOLU, energy, waste management and industrial processes). Ecuador presented its first NDC in 2019 (that same year through a national executive decree 840, the NDC was declared a State Policy) based on the prioritized sectors within the Climate Change National Strategy.

 

One of the biggest constrain for Ecuador is implementing projects mainly due to the lack of financial resources as well as the lack of knowledge and capabilities in the country.

 

The mitigation objectives stated in the unconditional/conditional scenarios to implement the NDC are:

  • Energy sector: initiatives including building RE generation plants, fostering energy efficiency and efficient public transport with a mitigation potential of 6560 Gg CO2-eq/year by 2025. Within the conditional scenario, the energy sector mitigation potential is 8540 CO2-eq/year by 2025.
  • Agriculture sector: the initiative of Climate Smart Livestock with a mitigation potential of 16,83 Gg CO2-eq/year by 2025. Within the conditional scenario, the agricultural sector mitigation potential is 1050 CO2-eq/year by 2025.
  • Industrial processes sector: the initiative of emission reduction in cement production with a mitigation potential of 130 Gg CO2-eq/year by 2025 and 323 CO2-eq/year by 2025 within the conditional scenario.
  • Waste management sector: the initiative capturing methane at waste disposal sites with a mitigation potential of 30 Gg CO2-eq/year by 2025 and 300 CO2-eq/year by 2025 within the conditional scenario.
  • AFOLU sector: the initiative of “PROAmazonía” has a mitigation potential of 16978,32 Gg CO2-eq/year by 2025 and 62074,31 CO2-eq/year by 2025 within the conditional scenario.

 

The adaptation objectives stated in the Implementation Plan for the NDC would be achieved through 101 goals that have been set to reduce vulnerability in the prioritized sectors. Furthermore, Ecuador’s NDC Implementation Plan sets 10 cross-cutting targets that would enhance the participation of more stakeholders in informed decision making through knowledge sharing and management of meteorological and hydrological data.

Country Technical Assistance Needs
  • Waste and sanitation management
  • Renewable energy and energy efficiency infrastructure projects.

 

More specifically, training can focus on:

 

  • Public private partnerships,
  • Access to Green Finance opportunities.
  • Train and develop human capabilities for sub local governments in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies and to develop bankable climate projects in line with the Development Plans and Territorial Organization in sub local governments
Country Climate Investment Opportunities

Ecuador’s NDC Implementation Plan has specific lines of action and initiatives that include the involvement of some sub local governments in waste management, health and human settlements sectors. The projects identified for these sectors are:

 

  • Waste management, to promote methane capture at waste disposal sites as well as composting with forced anaerobic reaction.
  • Health, to create an annual symposium of “Health and Climate Change”, to develop an informative guide about the risks of excessive sun exposure, to update the guidelines on “Citizens response against climate change” and to create the national program of Healthy Municipalities.
  • Human settlements, to integrate adaptation to climate change indicators as part of the municipal Land Use and Management and to launch at least 1 pilot project in human settlements which includes risk management and reduction.

 

Additionally and considering the important duties, responsibilities, and roles that local governments have, it is a priority to allocate resources for Water Management and Sanitation, as there are still local areas that do not have proper sanitation management.

 

Country SCF activities
  • Virtual call on SCF Projects process and Ecuador’s project proposals (22 October 2021).
  • Virtual meeting on SCF next steps (14 September 2021)
  • Provision of data and information for the country’s SCF profile, including project proposals for SCF to consider (06 September 2021).
  • Webinar organized by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment and Water (MAAE) including presentation of SCF (16 July 2021).
  • Virtual meeting on SCF national process (10 June 2021).

Discover our other articles

March 26, 2024
SCF Newsletter March 2024
December 21, 2023
SCF Newsletter December 2023
December 2, 2023
Local African communities intended to receive new green infrastructure through partnership announced at COP28 Local Climate Action Summit