Ecuador

With its diverse range of natural environments, from coastal plain to high mountains to the Amazon rainforest, Ecuador is expected to experience a range of impacts due to climate change. As a relatively small middle-income country, Ecuador does not support emissions targets for developing countries that do not cause large anthropogenic emissions. Nonetheless, adaptation to and mitigation of climate change is now a government objective. The constitution states that Ecuador “will adopt climate change mitigation policies” and promotes the development and adoption of clean technology.

The Ministry of the Environment is charged with awareness raising and developing institutional co-operation on climate change, notably through the Inter-institutional Climate Change Committee. It oversees commitments to the UNFCCC and the CDM and is taking the lead in preparing and executing the National Strategy for Climate Change, as per Decree 1815. This decree establishes the preparation and execution of the National Strategy for Climate Change, the benchmark for climate change actions, covering the period 2012-2025.

The National Climate Change Strategy is comprehensive and ambitious, and fits into broader development strategy. It aims to protect the country’s biodiversity, which Ecuador sees as a fundamental resource for health and well-being. The strategy is highly integrated across other policy areas: sectors that are prioritised in the National Plan for Good Living are also given priority in the National Strategy for Climate Change in order to provide policy coherence. These priority areas are: agriculture and livestock security; development of fishing and aquaculture; maintenance of water supply and natural ecosystems; development of tourism; improvement of infrastructure and robustness of human settlements.  The strategy is one component of a broader series of measures under the new constitution that are being put in place to foster more sustainable development in Ecuador.

The Climate Strategy takes particular note of the decentralised nature of the government, and the rights and abilities of regional governments to participate in action on climate change. It also recognises the role of civil society in climate change policy making and action, with specific reference to a 2011 law concerning the participation of civil society in governance.

The Climate Strategy has three implementing plans. The National Plan for the Creation and Strengthening of Institutional Conditions is to be developed by the office of Undersecretary for Climate Change, whose remit is to facilitate adaptation and mitigation by developing national institutional capacity. It also co-ordinates the development of the two other envisaged climate action-oriented plans: the Climate Change Mitigation Plan and the Climate Change Adaptation Plan. These should generate and implement actions and measures for climate change adaptation and mitigation across Ecuador and are currently being discussed.

The related National Plan for Good Living (2013-2017) aims to ensure sustainable management of resources and biodiversity, and develop strategies for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change (Objective 7). This plan sits alongside the National Environmental Policy which similarly is designed to ensure the well-being of Ecuadorians. These policies are faithful to the Constitution which remarkably defines nature as a rights-bearing entity, which “has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its evolutionary processes.”

In order to develop the knowledge and scientific capacity to deal with climate change, Ecuador has developed a number of research facilities that undertaking targeted research, such as the International Centre for Research on El Niño that provides a regional perspective on the west of South America and the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology.

Energy supply

Ecuador’s recent economic growth is partially the result of fossil fuel extraction, with exports of around 250,000 barrels of crude oil a day. It is hoped that the development of new domestic refining capacity will reduce oil derivative imports, slow domestic oil price increases and hence reduce inflationary pressure. The development of the sector has been aided by international investment and direct budgetary assistance, particularly from China through PetroEcuador. On the other hand, the climate change impacts from oil exports are partially reflected in the ‘ecotax’ imposed on the importers of the oil.

Dependency on fossil fuels for growth represents a challenge for climate change mitigation and adaptation, as it does for other countries. Ecuador faces the realities of being a middle-income country trying to develop its resources to achieve economic growth. Within the context of a broader development vision, the government is seeking to finance improved service provision and infrastructure that will both improve quality of life and be robust to climate change impacts, but without exacting too high a cost on the environment.

An example of the challenges of reconciling sustainable development and tackling climate change is the Yasuni National Park in the Amazonian region, which has long been known to contain large oil reserves in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini fields. Since these reserves are in an environmentally sensitive area and a national park, President Correa introduced a moratorium preventing planned drilling here. He offered to pay 50% of the projected site revenues to offset the opportunity costs of keeping the oil in the ground. Only USD13m of the USD3.6bn required to do this was raised from the international community, so exploitation was authorised in 2013.

However, the government acknowledges the challenges of managing development impacts on the environment, and is taking action to achieve more sustainable development. Under Objective 10 of the National Plan for Good Living, the government is promoting innovation and diversification of the economy away from natural resource dependency and diversification of the energy mix within the National Climate Change Strategy.

The focus in the energy sector is to reduce net emissions through increased efficiency in production of electricity and to promote the development of renewable energies including hydro-electric and solar power. The National Electricity Board (CONELEC) launched a feed-in tariff scheme in 2011 to support the development of solar photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas and hydro-energy. With eight new hydro-electric plants to be constructed by 2017, Ecuador aims to obtain 93% of its electricity from hydro-electric power (more than 50% already generated in 2012).

Energy demand

A number of projects have been implemented to reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency. Those include ‘Programme INNOVA Ecuador’ that assists uptake of energy efficient technologies in different industry sectors, ‘Programme RENOVA’ that led to the replacement of more than 100,000 inefficient refrigerators and more than 20,000 inefficient vehicles by 2015, and projects that support energy efficiency measures in urban zones. In 2013, around 50% of public buildings designed energy savings plans and started implementing them. The National Plan for Good Living (2013) also includes a number of quantitative targets and goals for increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption by 2025 (intermediate goals 2017). Additional measures to reduce GHG emissions exist in transportation, where a biodiesel blend mandate of 5% was introduced in 2012.

REDD+ and LULUCF

As a country that was once heavily forested, and where deforestation levels are still quite high, climate change mitigation is centred upon the reduction of deforestation and degradation, and forest restoration through REDD+, with deforestation being considered as both a social and environmental problem. The main drivers of deforestation are the expansion of agricultural land, for the raising of cattle in particular. Deforestation is addressed under the National Plan for Good Living; Forest Conservation Incentives Programme; Sustainable Livestock Programme; and the REDD+ National Programme. Through the diverse measures, Ecuador aims to reforest 500m ha of native forests on the national level by 2017 (already reforested around 46,200 ha over 2008-2012).

Adaptation

Ecuador is especially vulnerable to climate change impacts due to rising temperatures, natural disasters (landslides, floods), and reduced hydropower resources related to glacier retreat. It seeks to decrease its vulnerability through a number of adaptation projects, including the Climate Change & Water Governance Programme that promotes vulnerability studies, climate change resilient land planning, implementation of local strategies for climate change adaptation, and building institutional capacities, and is partly funded by the GEF; the Adaptation to Glacier Retreat and Moorland Conservation Programme that aims to enhance the resilience of Andean ecosystems, and to help local economies adapt to climate change impacts and glacier retreat.