Climate Change Receives IMF Mission 

Santo Domingo.- The Executive Vice President of the National Council for Climate Change and Carbon Market, Max Puig, received the members of the International Monetary Fund Mission who are visiting the country, with whom he discussed the progress of climate action in the country. During the meeting, Puig addressed the progress in the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) from 2020 and in the construction of NDC 3.0, a process that he highlighted for its openness and broad participation of all sectors of the government, the business sector, civil society, and youth.

“The process is being guided by the steering committee, which, along with the National Council for Climate Change, also includes the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, with the support of the NDC Partnership organization, and the sectoral participation workshops have made it possible to identify new potential for sustainable actions in all sectors that will allow to increase the national climate ambition,” he said.

In the meeting, they also discussed policies for risk prevention and management, especially regarding support for the Dominican Institute of Meteorology (Indomet), the Emergency Operations Center (COE), Civil Defense, and the National Emergency Commission, to ensure informed and timely decision-making in the face of potential disasters caused by natural events. In that sense, they also discussed cooperation with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which includes the development of an early warning system for the population, and the development of a project to improve resilience in school infrastructure. That project is linked to the government’s actions to ensure the resilience of public infrastructure against hydrometeorological events, a topic in “which the president himself, Luis Abinader, constituted the Public Infrastructure Evaluation Commission, which evaluated, through the National Office of Seismic Evaluation and Infrastructure and Building Vulnerability (ONESVIE), several highways, roads, bridges and tunnels.”

“We are also working with the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Housing and Buildings to promote the formulation of new, more adapted and resilient construction standards,” he pointed out.

CLIMATE FINANCE Since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change stipulates that developing countries can condition their climate action on international financial cooperation, the Dominican Republic conditioned most of the commitments made in the NDC-2020 on receiving funding from international cooperation. However, Puig explained that national financing, from both the government and the private sector, has been above the ambition outlined in the NDC and indicates that this will be even greater in the coming years.

“Organizations such as the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) have been supporting the country to promote the energy transition and the protection of natural environments for adaptation to the effects of climate change, improving the resilience of communities through nature-based solutions,” he explained.

Puig also emphasized that the development of the Carbon Market, a policy for which the national climate governance system was adapted through decree 358-25, will facilitate the flow of resources from international markets to the Dominican Republic.

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Although the mission of the International Monetary Fund recognized the Dominican Republic’s progress in climate governance and institutional organization, the need for the approval of the Climate Change Framework Law was recognized, of which there are 4 preliminary drafts prepared without, so far, any progress having been registered in its approval. The Executive Vice President of the National Council for Climate Change and Carbon Market, Max Puig, was accompanied by the technical director of the institution, Sara González; the advisor for Intersectoral Relations, Rodrigo Fincheira, the advisor for International Relations, Karen Hedemann; the head of the Adaptation Department, Rosalía Duval; and the advisors of the NDC 3.0 Steering Committee, Iván Relova and Nelly Cuello. For the mission of the International Monetary Fund, Ricardo Peraza and Pamela Beatriz Madrid participated in person, while Ilya Stepanov and Manuel Rosales Torres participated virtually.