Mining 2025

ZAMBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Harriet Mdala, Natasha Lungu, Samuel Muleya and Chanda Musonda-Chiluba, MAY and Company

• Section 10 of the Climate Change Act places a duty on the Minister of Green Economy and Environment to develop a National Adaptation Plan and a National Mitigation Plan, which will be reviewed every five years. This Section transposes Article 4(1)(b) of the UNFCCC, which deals with commitments of the parties, requires the parties to formulate, implement, publish and regularly update national pro - grammes that contain measures to mitigate climate change and to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change into domestic law. • Section 4(2)(l) of the Climate Change Act, places responsibility for overseeing the revi - sion and updating of the nationally deter - mined contributions (NDCs) on the Depart - ment of Green Economy and Climate Change in the Ministry of Green Economy. This is similar to Article 4(2) of the Paris Agreement, which enables parties to determine the efforts that each of them will take to achieve the objectives of the agreement. These efforts are referred to NDCs and need to be prepared successively. • Article 6(2) of the Paris Agreement introduced the concept of internationally transferrable mitigation outcomes (ITMOs), which have been described as a co-operative approach that allows countries to cut their GHG emis - sions by investing in projects that reduce GHG emissions in other countries. The Climate Change Act seeks to extend the domestication of the notion of ITMO to apply to projects other than those that come under the Forests Act and/or the Forests Carbon Stock Management Regulations. • Under Article 7 of the UNFCCC, the parties agreed to adopt regular reports on the imple - mentation of the UNFCCC and to publish these reports. This reporting requirement was enhanced under Article 13 of the Paris

Agreement, which established an enhanced transparency framework. The Climate Change Act has provided mechanisms that allow for collection and storage of data related to climate change. • Article 4(1)(g) of the UNFCCC requires the parties to promote and co-operate in scien - tific, technological, technical, socio-economic and other research related to the climate system intended to further the understand- ing and to reduce/eliminate the remaining uncertainties regarding climate change. Furthermore, Article 6(8) of the Paris Agree - ment recognises various approaches that can assist countries in the implementation of their NDCs, including finance, technology transfer and capacity building. Accordingly, Section 34 of the Climate Change Act establishes the Green Economy and Climate Change Fund and sets out some of the applications of the Fund. 3.3 Sustainable Development Initiatives Related to Mining Zambia has various sustainable development goals (SDGs) as the government of Zambia is committed to the implementation of the trans - formative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Develop - ment. Some of the SDGs include the following. • The Climate Change Act transposes vari - ous provisions of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement into domestic law and dem - onstrates Zambia’s commitment to taking effective climate action. The Climate Change Act has not yet been enacted into law. Once enacted, the Climate Change Act will serve as a significant piece of legislation in aligning Zambia’s legal framework with international obligations in respect of climate action. • The government of Zambia has resolved to transition the country to a green economy.

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