EU-Seychelles ‘Seychelles a key ally in climate change issues’ |28 April 2021

Ambassador Degert addressing the gathering virtually (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

“For the European Union (EU), Seychelles is and remains a key ally – a like-minded partner – on climate change issues,” the EU ambassador to Seychelles, Vincent Degert has said.

“Both (the EU and Seychelles) realise that climate change cannot be addressed by only one nation or in solo. If we want to make an impact, we need to join forces because climate change concerns us all,” the ambassador added.

Ambassador Degert was speaking virtually at a validation workshop organised yesterday under the theme ‘Supporting the Government of Seychelles in developing a revised, more ambitious 2020 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) partnership’s CAEP’.

The workshop, held at the Eden Bleu Hotel on Eden Island, was organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment (MACCE), supported by the European Union Global Technical Assistance Facility (EU-TAF) for Sustainable Energy.

The aim of the workshop was to review and update the 2015 NDC through engagement of different ministries and international partners, ensuring coordination and alignment of activities; unpack NDC activities or low-carbon energy development projects into cost estimates to inform NDC implementation and resource mobilisation; analyse the costs, benefits and impacts of NDC actions to inform prioritisation of actions to be included in the updated, enhanced NDC.

The event was graced by the presence of the Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Flavien Joubert, while the EU ambassador to Seychelles, Vincent Degert, addressed the gathering virtually.

Why is this workshop important? The EU ambassador noted that the organisation of this workshop could not be more timely. As COP 26 is fast approaching, parties to the UNFCCC indeed need to progress with the prompt revision and update of their NDCs to reflect their renewed climate ambitions.

“Allow me to commend the Seychelles government for its relentless engagement in putting climate change as its topmost priority. Seychelles was indeed among the first nations to sign the Paris Agreement and ratify it in 2015. And today, Seychelles continues to play an exemplary role not only in revising its NDCs but in enhancing its climate ambitions.”

The EU ambassador commended Minister Joubert for the announcement he made at the Leaders Summit on Climate organised by the US President, regarding Seychelles heightened ambitions to contribute to climate change mitigation via seagrass and mangrove cultivations. This is even more meaningful and commendable bearing in mind that Seychelles contributes to barely 0.003% of global greenhouse gases.

“Seychelles unflinching commitment to save the planet should serve as model not only for African peers and SIDS (small islands developing states), but for the entire world. The EU is particularly pleased to be associated with this NDC revision exercise, which is financed under the Global Technical Assistance Facility for Sustainable Energy. The EU is a long-standing partner of the Seychelles for more than 40 years with an active collaboration in the environmental and climate change domains. We have provided support to key sectors such as solid waste and energy for many years. Currently, under the Global Climate Change Alliance programme, we are supporting the Ministry of Environment in reinforcing the policy framework to address climate change, and at the same time, we are financing key works on La Digue to address flooding problems caused by climate change,” stated Ambassador Degert.

He said that for the EU, Seychelles is and remains a key ally – a like-minded partner – on climate change issues. We both realise that climate change cannot be addressed by only one nation or in solo. If we want to make an impact, we need to join forces because climate change concerns us all.

Minister Joubert explained the purpose of the NDCs which are documents that capture countries’ commitments and responses to climate change. It consists of 2 components, one on adaptation and the other on mitigation. They are updated every 5 years for submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

“Our NDC revision process is now entering validation stage. We have already completed the first component on adaptation supported by World Bank on March 23, 2021, and the final validation of the whole Seychelles’ NDC document to relevant stakeholders is expected on Wednesday May 12, 2021, supported by UNDP ‘Climate Promise Initiative’.

Addressing the participants of the workshop, Minister Joubert stated that “in this validation workshop, it is important for all participants to engage in an open dialogue, to learn on ways to strengthen the collective efforts and to confront the climate crisis through our NDC. So, we are placing the draft Mitigation Section of our NDC on the table for you to provide your final comments and inputs, before we can officially validate and adopt it, which will be then submitted to the UNDP ‘Climate Promise Initiative’ consultant to be inserted in the final NDC document. It is essential that this task is completed, to enable us to have the validation of the whole NDC document on May 4, 2021, before submission to the cabinet of ministers for endorsement by the first week of June 2021”.

“Finally, I urge all present here today to actively participate and do not hesitate to highlight any concern to either the form or content of this mitigation document for the benefit of Seychelles.

“I hope this workshop will provide an avenue for all of us to bring our expertise, contribute to discussions and build recommendations of this workshop which will undoubtedly benefit Seychelles,” concluded the minister.

Michel Caubet, the team leader of the Global Technical Assistance Facility Sustainable Energy Expert gave an overview of the EU Global Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) which will assist the government of Seychelles through the department of Climate Change & Energy of the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment in the following areas:

 1.            Improving methods, data and information quality, and accompanying MRV system:

a.            Development of emission factors to better predict emissions from energy generation

b.            Review of the MRV framework and recommendations.

2.            Elaboration of inputs for the development of the National Energy Strategy for Seychelles.

a.            Communication and dialogue support:

b.            Organisation of workshops and meetings among the main stakeholders to facilitate in-country exchanges.

The workshop was attended by some 25 participants from government and private sector.