Starting a public-private dialogue to deliver on the Paris Agreement (ACT-DDP)

The Paris Agreement formalised the objective of keeping the increase in global warming below +2°C by the end of the century. Attaining this objective depends on creating complementary dynamics between companies and national governments, using a bottom-up approach. To date however, no constructive system exists for exchanges between these different stakeholders.

To remedy this, the FFEM is supporting the ACT-DDP project, which aims to design and promote tools for dialogue between governments and companies. The objective is create the conditions for mutual benefit from their decarbonisation strategies, by bringing together two pioneering initiatives developed by ADEME and Iddri respectively: Assessing low Carbon Transition (ACT) and Deep Decarbonisation Pathways Project (DDPP). Two emerging countries, Brazil and Mexico, have been chosen to deploy this project.

The project has four components:

• Develop industry-specific decarbonisation pathways. Scenarios will be developed for three industries in each country (cement and electricity production in both countries, passenger transport in Mexico, soil use in Brazil).
• Evaluate local companies’ pathways. A methodology will be developed to evaluate the alignment of Mexican and Brazilian companies’ strategies with industry-wide and national decarbonisation strategies.
• Transfer and communicate at national level. Throughout its life, the project will aim to capitalise, disseminate, raise awareness and train.
• Communicate at regional and international level. Communication campaigns will be launched to encourage emulation of the approach elsewhere in Latin America and the inclusion of non-state stakeholders in the UNFCCC negotiation process.
   

• Production of a methodology for the development of deep decarbonisation pathways for each of the industries studied in Brazil and Mexico.
• Production of a methodology for evaluating local companies’ pathways.
• Production of data for individual companies and whole industries.
• Awareness-raising and training of local stakeholders.
• Communicating evaluation results to the international community.
• Mainstreaming of the developed methodologies to other countries, particularly in Latin America and within the ACT network.

This project combines two innovative climate initiatives: ACT is the only initiative offering methods using verifiable data to evaluate companies’ contribution to decarbonisation, while DDPP alone uses a bottom-up, industry-specific and national process to develop decarbonisation scenarios as part of an international approach.

The project is also exemplary because it offers companies ambitious, action-orientated decarbonisation strategies. A participative approach is used to create tools aiming to establish constructive communication between private and public stakeholders. Strong emphasis is placed on establishing evaluation methods so that companies can monitor their progress towards set objectives.