An analysis of the progress of the implementation of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals in Zambia

This study has been undertaken as part of a continental effort by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) to investigate the progress of African countries in implementation of the Paris agreement and the SDGs. As observed by PACJA, Africa has in the last decade experienced weather related events including high temperature, floods and droughts, with damaging consequences, which clearly point to a changing climate. Another serious observations is that the weather-related disasters have affected health, livelihoods, productivity, water availability and overall security of people, resulting into conflicts and unprecedented levels of displacement and migration, while mostly affecting women, children and the aged.

Following years of discourse on climate change, the Paris Agreement (demonstrating unprecedented global action) was signed to chart a way forward to address climate change. This global pact was billed to commence implementation in 2020 by way of individual countries Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which indicate the targets in emission reductions and specific strategies for implementation. Both the Paris Agreement and NDC recognize the critical role of sub-national and national level stakeholder actions including non-state actors in turning around the negative consequences brought about by or expected from a changing global climate. Climate change presents the biggest threat to sustainable development meaning that many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) may not be achieved because of climate change. Therefore enhanced climate action can reinforce progress on the SGDs. As observed by the Paris Agreement and SGDs are supposed to be implemented alongside each other but may not be so in practice.

As observed by PACJA it is critical to gather data on the progress of countries on SDGs and Paris agreement and assess the extent to which countries align the two processes so as to generate baseline that will be useful in pushing for consideration of these two important processes in Post COVID19 reconstruction process. In this regard, PACJA commissioned a study aimed at analyzing the progress of African countries in implementation of the Paris agreement and the SDGs. The study we also seek to find out how the integration of these frameworks is happening at the national level, in terms of reporting on progress, coordination mechanisms between the departments, and even policy coherence.

This particular study focuses on Zambia and attempts to analyse the country’s implementation of both the Paris and the SGDs while examining how the two are integrated as part of the overall national development processes. The recommendations from these studies will be used for inputs into climate change and SDGs processes at the continental and national levels.