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6.4 Step B: Policy commitment review Module

This step in the integrated policy analysis involves taking a high level look at environmental commitment 5
in effect in the jurisdiction of the IEA. Environmental commitments can take different forms. Some are
tied to MEAs, regional or bilateral agreements, or expressed through national legislation, strategies or
political declarations. Not all commitments have the same force, and the review should focus on those

where commitments require action and inaction has potential consequences. There is also a difference
in the specificity of the commitments: some are at the level of general political statements, others can
be more specific and precise with quantitative, time-bound targets and responsibilities. Abu Dhabi, UAE

Consider the issue of climate change as an example. If your country is an Annex 1 country under the

Kyoto protocol, and your country has ratified the agreement, then your national-level government will
have a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a certain percentage below 1990 levels by the
period 2008–2012. Given such a target, is it quite likely that your country has a national strategy or
action plan to reduce GHG emissions, and such a plan would set forth a mix of policy instruments to
achieve the target. It is important to note for this climate change example, the target is directed at a
direct driver (GHG emissions) and not the state of atmospheric CO concentrations. In fact, while the
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overall goal of the Kyoto protocol is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of CO , it only sets out
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targets addressing the pressure from GHG emissions.

Table 8 summarizes Canada’s climate change commitments based on the above description. The exercise
below involves the analysis of high level commitments related to an issue selected by participants in their
own country.

Table 8 Analysis of Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol

Issue Goal and target Strategy or action plan Status of implementation

Climate change 6% reduction in GHG Climate Change Plan for Some policy instruments
Environmental state: emissions by the period Canada – 2002 Moving being implemented, but
Atmospheric CO 2008–2012 (Kyoto Forward on Climate overall GHG emissions are
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concentration Protocol) Change – 2005 still rising

In this module a case study on “Integrated Policy Analysis for Groundwater Protection in Wadi Ma'awil,
Barka town, Oman” will be present to illustrate the steps of poicy analysis. Whereas the policy analysis
of Tubli Bay is published in arabic (Abahussain, and Alsabbagh, 2009)

IEA Training Manual Workshop for the National Reporting Toolkit (NRT) 87