Algeria: Cooperation between the Algerian environment and energy sectors to combat climate change

Algiers- The Algerian Minister of Environment, Fazia Dahleb, launched on Monday, the development of the national strategy to combat climate change, as part of Algeria’s commitments towards the Paris climate agreement (COP21).

The announcement was made during the signing ceremony of Sonatrach’s new climate strategy, in the presence of the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines Mohamed Arkab, and the CEOs of the Sonatrach group, Rachid Hachichi, and the National Agency for the valorization of hydrocarbon resources (ALNAFT), Mourad Beldjehem.

Regarding cooperation between the energy sector and the field of environment, Dahleb mentioned the important contribution of this sector to the production of the first national inventory of greenhouse gas emissions for the period 1990-2020 and of the first biennial update report.

As part of this cooperation, a first model of a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system for the energy sector was also developed and tested at two sites under the « transparent » surveillance of Sonatrach. Accordingly, a pilot measurement project will be launched at Sonelgaz in order to improve the measurement tools linked to the production, transport and distribution of electricity and natural gas.