Under the Low Emission Capacity Building (LECB) Programme, financed by the EU, Germany, and AusAID, participating countries are primarily focusing on capacity building activities at the national level. This includes formulating Low-Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) and/or Nationally appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), as well as establishing the underlying data collection systems (i.e. national GHG inventory systems, and monitoring, reporting and verification systems).

Nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) are concrete projects, policies, and/or programmes that shift a technology or sector in a country onto a low-carbon development trajectory. A LEDS, on the other hand, outlines the intended overall economic, energy, and emissions trajectory for a country and helps to identify entry points for policy intervention (including identifying and prioritizing NAMAs and ensuring coherence between NAMAs and national development goals).

The government of Colombia is using the Programme to develop the framework for its Low Carbon Development Strategy. Three main activities are envisaged in Colombia:

• Identification and assessment of low-carbon alternatives and opportunities;
• Design of low-carbon plans, policies and measures; and
• Design and construction of an MRV system.

A knowledge platform will be established for stakeholders, which will also allow the work to be linked to other national activities, such as marginal abatement cost curves for industry, investment and financial flows assessments for agriculture, and development of transport NAMAs.