Assessing Development Impacts Associated with Low Emission Development Strategies: Lessons Learned from Pilot Efforts in Kenya and Montenegro Page: 7 of 33
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Introduction
Low emission development strategies (LEDS) and related plans present pathways for countries
to achieve long-term national development goals in a manner that also minimizes greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions trajectories. LEDS are often economy-wide in scope and encompass all key
emissions and development sectors, including energy, transport, agriculture, industry, waste,
forestry, and other land use. The development scenarios included in a LEDS lay out concrete
policies, programs, financing, and other actions to ensure the strategy is implementable both
within key sectors as well as across the economy. As opposed to programs strictly focused on
GHG emission mitigation, LEDS actions are aligned with the development goals of the country,
such as poverty alleviation, economic growth, and energy security.
Designing a LEDS requires thorough and transparent economy-wide analysis and prioritization
of mitigation and development actions. Considering the economic, social, and environmental
impacts associated with these actions supports such analysis and contributes to well-informed
decision making.
Country leaders and practitioners pursuing LEDS have noted that a critical limitation with LEDS
analysis tools is their inability to adequately assess and visually present-in a simple manner
the variety of development impacts associated with LEDS options. Therefore, providing
policymakers with a full picture of both the development and mitigation impacts of proposed
actions is often difficult.
To address this issue, the LEDS Global Partnership' designed and has piloted the use of a
development impact assessment (DIA) tool to visually display development impacts of LEDS
actions to decision makers.2 The purposes of the tool-referred to in this paper as the DIA visual
tool-are to:
1. Communicate development impacts of LEDS actions
2. Support decision-making to determine sets of actions that contribute to national
development goals (1).
This study builds on the findings in a paper published by Cowlin et al. (2012), titled Broadening
the Appeal of Marginal Abatement Cost Curves: Capturing both Carbon Mitigation and
Development Benefits of Clean Energy Technologies, which provides background on
development of the DIA visual tool.
1 The Low Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP) was founded to enhance coordination,
information exchange, and cooperation among programs and countries working to advance low emissions growth.
The LEDS Global Partnership, which brings together more than 100 governmental and international institutions, has
facilitated discussions on the challenges associated with visualizing and communicating development impacts
associated with LEDS, revealing broad consensus on these limitations. For more information, see ledsgp.org.
2 Organizations that led the development and piloting of the DIA visual tool include the Energy Research Centre of
the Netherlands (ECN), the German Agency for International Cooperation, the International Institute for Sustainable
Development, the Joint Implementation Network, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
This report is available at no cost from the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 1
at www.nrel.gov/publications.
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Cox, S.; Katz, J. & Wurtenberger, L. Assessing Development Impacts Associated with Low Emission Development Strategies: Lessons Learned from Pilot Efforts in Kenya and Montenegro, report, January 1, 2014; Golden, Colorado. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc867634/m1/7/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.