Tunisia needs around $55 billion, equivalent to nearly 164 billion dinars, to finance implementation of its nationally determined contribution (NDC 3.0) for 2026-2035 in the area of climate change, with 74 percent of the funding to be raised internationally through climate-finance mechanisms under the Paris Agreement.
Mobilising climate finance
A national workshop entitled “Tunisia’s Access to Climate Finance”, held on Wednesday at the International Diplomatic Academy in Tunis, examined ways to accelerate the country’s access to climate finance and mobilise the resources needed to implement its climate and development priorities.
The workshop was organised in partnership with the ministries of environment, finance, economy and planning, with support from the United Nations Development Programme, to strengthen coordination among stakeholders and partners and identify mechanisms for mobilising additional resources. It was attended by a number of international partners, including the German Agency for International Cooperation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the French Development Agency, the German Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Nafti said at the opening of the workshop that climate finance “is not purely an environmental issue; it is also a development, investment and economic-transformation issue”. He said the approach now focused on preparing bankable projects capable of attracting and combining multiple sources of finance.
“The matter is no longer limited to seeking financing for a project; it now involves preparing bankable projects capable of attracting and combining several sources of finance.”
Nafti said the aim was to turn climate ambitions into investments, projects and tangible results benefiting the economy, regions and people. He said mobilising climate and environmental finance had become an important pillar of Tunisian diplomacy, noting that the resources raised to achieve the country’s climate goals remained “below the country’s potential”.
Nafti called for additional resources to be mobilised through various means in response to needs, alongside expanding efforts to explore debt-for-development project mechanisms.
The Green Belt and Carbon Authority
Environment Minister Habib Abid called on foreign partners to support the Green Belt programme, which aims to deliver tangible results by 2030. The programme mainly involves rehabilitating around 260,000 hectares of degraded land and preventing the release of significant amounts of carbon, as well as creating thousands of “green jobs” in rural areas and improving living conditions for residents.
Abid said climate change was now threatening water, food and energy security, the coastline and natural resources, with repercussions for the national economy. He also called for the rapid establishment of Tunisia’s Carbon Authority, which would enable the country to benefit from the financing mechanisms set out in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
The UN resident coordinator in Tunisia, Rana Taha, said that “working in climate finance also means financing development and growth in Tunisia”, stressing the importance of integration among stakeholders in achieving fair and inclusive development and benefiting from international cooperation and the experiences of other countries.
Taha called for the creation of a platform and a framework for cooperation among stakeholders to identify measures aligned with national priorities and link climate-finance mobilisation to an integrated development vision for Tunisia.
Emissions-reduction and energy-transition targets
Celine Moyroud, the UN Development Programme’s resident representative in Tunisia, said the country had strong potential in renewable energy, the circular economy and coastal protection, as well as scope to expand its use of climate-finance mechanisms.
Moyroud cited the “Prosol Thermal” solar-water-heater programme as a benchmark initiative that led to the installation of one million square metres of solar collectors. She added that risk-sharing and a unified vision facilitated access to finance, affirming the programme’s readiness to support Tunisia in its transition and in achieving its sustainable-development goals.
Tunisia aims to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 31 percent by 2035 and cut net greenhouse-gas emissions by 34 percent by 2035 compared with 2010. The national effort is centred on accelerating the energy transition by improving energy efficiency and expanding the use of renewable energy.
The national energy-transition policy, adopted in 2023, aims to raise the share of renewables to at least 50 percent of the energy mix.
