Integrated climate change and air pollution mitigation assessment for Togo

Togo is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change but has made a negligible contribution to causing it. Togo signed the 2017 Paris Agreement and committed to submitting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) outlining their climate change mitigation objectives.

Togo’s capital, Lomé, as well as other areas of Togo have ambient air pollutant levels exceeding World Health Organisation guidelines (WHO) for human health protection, and the majority of Togolese households cook using solid biomass, elevating household air pollution exposure.

In Togo’s updated NDC, submitted in 2021, Togo acknowledges the importance and opportunity of achieving international climate change mitigation targets in ways that improve air quality and achieve health benefits for Togo’s citizens. The aim of this work is to evaluate priority mitigation measures in an integrated assessment of air pollutant, Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP) and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to identify their effectiveness in simultaneously reducing air pollution and Togo’s contribution to climate change.

The mitigation assessment quantifies emissions for Togo and Grand Lomé from all major source sectors (energy, industrial processes and product use, agriculture, and waste) for the years between 2010 and 2018. This results in a baseline projection to 2030 and for mitigation scenarios evaluating ten mitigation measures. The assessment estimated that Togo emitted approximately 21 million tonnes of GHG emissions in 2018, predominantly from the energy and Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use sectors. GHG emissions are projected to increase 42% to 30 million tonnes in 2030 without implementation of mitigation policies and measures.

The implementation of the ten identified priority mitigation measures could reduce GHG emissions by approximately 20% in 2030 compared to the baseline, while SLCPs and air pollutants were estimated to be reduced more, with a more than 75% reduction in black carbon emissions in 2030. This work therefore provides a clear pathway by which Togo can reduce its already small contribution to climate change while simultaneously achieving local benefits for air quality and human health in Togo and Grand Lomé.