Lebanon

Lebanon joined the CCAC in 2023 and has begun work to define its priorities for SLCP mitigation and advancing the ambition of its next Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). 

Environmental policy planning in Lebanon falls in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Environment (MOE). The MOE addresses climate change and sustainability in its policy planning and is solely responsible for producing environmental laws at the national level.

Lebanon ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1994 and has also ratified the Kyoto Protocol (2006), and Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol (2020). 

Lebanon’s latest NDC (2021) covers the sectors of Energy, Industrial Processes and other products use, agriculture, forestry and land-use change, and waste.

The NDC commits Lebanon to unconditionally increase its greenhouse gas emission reduction target relative to the Business-as-Usual (BAU) scenario from 15% to 20%, and conditionally increasing its GHG emission reduction target relative to the BAU scenario from 30% to 31%. 

The World Bank Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) for Lebanon (2011) estimated the cost of environmental degradation (COED) in Lebanon at US$800 million (equivalent to 3.7% of GDP), with air pollution alone costing 0.7% of GDP.

Between 2010 to 2020, Lebanon enacted milestone environmental regulations addressing various sectors including governance, water, air, solid waste and protected areas that can be considered as a key step towards protection of the Lebanese environment

In 2018, the Lebanese Parliament enacted Law 78 on the Protection of Air Quality. The law comprises of 34 Articles and aims to prevent and mitigate ambient air pollution from fixed and mobile sources, through: monitoring air pollutants (through the National Program for Ambient Air Quality Monitoring, National Network for Ambient Air Quality Monitoring, National Emission Inventory and National Report on Ambient Air Quality), assessment of their levels in the Lebanese atmosphere, setting limit values and thresholds of ambient air pollutants (including CO, NOx, O3 , Particles, SO2, NMVOC and Pb) and emission limit values of fixed and mobile sources, and prevention, and control and surveillance of ambient air pollution resulting from human activities.

In 2020, the National Strategy for Air Quality Management 2015-2030 was adopted in Lebanon through Decree 6212. This strategy builds on the vision that ‘every citizen has the right to enjoy clean air’ to set several long-term goals that need to be adopted by the government to reach the vision by 2030. Each of the goals is coupled with a set of outputs, activities, indicators and an indication of the different stakeholders involved in the implementation of each activity, information designed to be used as a framework for monitoring the progress towards the 2030 vision.

Beside the National Strategy for Air Quality Management 2015-2030, other cross-sectoral national policies and strategies are of direct relevance to and influence on air quality.

These include: 

• The 2001 Draft Transport Policy and the 2016 Draft Land Transport Strategy
• The 2010 Policy Paper for the Electricity Sector and its 2019 update
• The 2016-2020 National Energy Efficiency Action Plan 
• The 2016-2020 National Renewable Energy Action Plan
• The Integrated Vision for The Lebanese Industrial Sector 2025 
• The Draft Integrated Solid Waste Management Strategy for Lebanon

Waste

Lebanon achieved an important environmental milestone with the passing of the 2018,  Solid Waste Management Law No. 80. Law No. 80 introduces major guiding principles, including: (1) integrated household SWM, (2) reduction, reuse and recycling, (3) sustainability of the management scheme, (4) proximity to waste facilities, (5) precautionary measures, (6) prevention of uncontrolled dumping, landfilling and burning, (7) polluter pays principle, and (8) decentralization and subsidiarity principle. Law No. 80 requires the development of a national strategy for ISWM, following a participatory approach, to be revised every 10 years or when needed.

Transport 

The 2014, National Transport Policy, seeks to shift passenger transport demand to mass transit systems. The main actions with direct impact on reducing GHG emissions include the development of a mass transit system covering all of Lebanon.

The budget Law of 2018 79/2018 (Article 55) and renewed in 2019 (Law 144/2019 – Article 25.c) provides cuts on customs and registration fees for the purchase of hybrid and electric vehicles in Lebanon.

Agriculture, Forestry and Biodiversity

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to assist the agricultural sector to better adapt to the impacts of climate change and to reduce its emissions. These plans include four programmes as follows (1) increase climate change adaptation and encourage related private investment along the agrifood value chains, (2) promote sustainable use of natural resources (soil, pastures, forests and fisheries), (3) enhance the efficient use of irrigation water and expand the supply of water resources for irrigation, and (4) encourage and support the use of renewable energy in the agricultural sector.

Air Quality 

One of the goals of the 2015-2030 National Strategy for Air Quality Management is mainstreaming air quality management in priority sectors to ensure synergies with national climate change policies and plans by including air quality emissions in plans and projects related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Decision 99/1 of 2013 provides an incentive to the private sector including commercial, institutional and industrial enterprises to report to the Ministry of Environment on a voluntary basis their GHG emissions and related activity data.

Ministry of Environment Decisions 52/1-1996 and 8/1-2001 set gaseous concentration limits for specific air pollutants emitted into the air from several sources including power plants and generators.

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy 

In March 2016, Lebanon published its Second National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) (2016-2020). It categorized initiatives between energy savings in the Lebanese power sector and end use energy saving measures in buildings, industries, small and medium enterprises, agriculture, mobility and transport, and public services sectors. It also included different types of measures at the policy and legal levels (MoEW/LCEC, 2016a). 

The National Renewable Energy Action Plan (2016 – 2020) identifies quantitative targets to develop different RE technologies and legal framework needed to reach the target of 12% renewable energy by 2020, with indicative technology mix for the years 2025 and 2030. 

In 2020, the Ministry of Energy and Water launched the Renewable Energy Roadmap defining the individual target capacities for each technology: 1,000 MW of wind, 601 MW of hydropower, 2,500 MW of centralized solar PV, 500 MW of decentralized solar PV and 13 MW of biogas, paving the way for Lebanon’s updated RE targets of 18%-30% as part of the 2020 NDC update under the Paris agreement