LocationsNamibia’s story is one of credible climate governance, where transparency builds trust, evidence drives action, and ambition delivers development.
Namibia’s Road to COP30: How Transparency and Ambition Are Powering Africa’s Climate Leadership
November 11, 2025
The Zambezi River is an important system within the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) conservation and tourism zone. It connects people and nature across borders, showing how shared waters can unite communities. Zambezi Region, Namibia.
UNDP Namibia
As the world gathers in Belém, Brazil, for COP30, Namibia is positioned to demonstrate how transparent reporting and evidence-based policy can be powerful tools for climate action. Across Africa, a new generation of climate leaders is emerging, using data, evidence, and integrity to turn ambition into progress. Namibia’s journey offers a model for what this new era of climate leadership looks like.
Credibility Through Transparency
Namibia’s leadership is part of a broader African story; one where countries are not waiting for solutions but building them. By submitting its First Biennial Transparency Report (BTR1) together with the Fifth National Communication (NC5) under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), Namibia became one of the first African countries to demonstrate full transparency in its climate reporting. Submitted in December 2024, the report confirmed Namibia’s position as a net carbon sink, with a 45% increase in land-based removals since 1990. This achievement reflects a commitment to rigorous data collection and transparent progress on mitigation, adaptation, and support needs.
Transparency, in Namibia’s case, is not just about reporting; it is about credibility and confidence. Supported by UNDP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Namibia is already developing its Second Biennial Transparency Report (BTR2) and the combined Third Biennial Transparency Report and Sixth National Communication (BTR3/NC6), reinforcing a system that ensures data translates into policy, and policy into progress.
As of October 2025, over 110 countries have submitted BTRs under the UNFCCC (UNFCCC Synthesis Report), marking good progress in global transparency. For developing countries, these reports are increasingly used to identify technical and financial gaps, which is essential information for negotiation and policy design at COP30.
A group of springboks drink at a waterhole in Etosha National Park, Namibia. In this dry landscape, every drop of water matters, for wildlife and people alike.
UNDP Namibia
Linking Transparency to Ambition: Namibia’s NDC 3.0
At the heart of Namibia’s engagement at COP30 is its Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0), to be submitted in 2026. This process builds on the Second Updated NDC of 2023, which identified a total mitigation potential of 11.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, through a combination of emission reductions and carbon removals. Supported by the UNDP Climate Promise Initiative and the Government of the United Kingdom the NDC 3.0 stocktake and update are guided by lessons learned from BTR1 and NC5, ensuring that future targets are measurable, transparent, and aligned with Namibia’s development priorities.
Namibia is designing its NDC 3.0 not just as a climate plan but as a national development strategy. It will integrate mitigation and adaptation actions across key sectors - water, energy, agriculture, and land use - to foster resilience, create jobs, and drive inclusive growth and resilience for vulnerable communities.
This is the kind of joined-up climate governance Africa needs: where climate ambition is also economic ambition, where environmental integrity supports human progress.
Data Driven Policy
Evidence is power. Transparency and data are central to Namibia’s approach. They inform decision-making, support budget allocation, and strengthen accountability. They ensure that national investments, from renewable energy expansion to climate-smart agriculture, are guided by credible evidence, not assumption. Namibia’s achievements in transparency show how data gathered through technical reporting can translate into targeted interventions, empowering communities to adapt and thrive. Key successes in early-warning systems, water-harvesting schemes, and community-based restoration projects are testament about policy frameworks grounded in reliable information.
Negotiating with Integrity, Acting with Evidence
Transparency and ambition must be met with matching support. The UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) 2025/17 report recognises that while developing countries are advancing their transparency efforts, sustained international financing and technology transfer remain critical for continuity and scale.
Transparency strengthens the country’s credibility, enhances negotiation power, and signals readiness to deliver on commitments with integrity. As Namibia joins the global deliberations, the country’s integration of data with policy formulation, enables negotiations backed up by evidence to advocate for fairness and predictability in climate cooperation.
A clear and additional argument for Namibia and other countries negotiating for the upholding of the Paris commitments, is that enhanced transparency should unlock enhanced support.
Investing in credible data and transparent reporting merits equitable access to climate finance, capacity-building, and technology. This call for fairness, is anchored in the very spirit of the Paris Agreement and founded on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
The Kavango River winds through green floodplains, bringing life to communities and wildlife across north-eastern Namibia. Its waters connect Angola, Namibia and Botswana including the ecosystems, and people who depend on them. Kavango East Region, Namibia.
UNDP Namibia
From Reporting to Developmental Transformation
For Namibia, transparency is more than a procedural obligation, it is an instrument of transformation. The BTR and NDC frameworks provide the analytical foundation for integrating climate goals into the Sixth National Development Plan, fiscal policy and investment decisions. This approach ensures that climate action is a driver of development and no not separate from it.
As the Government of Namibia continues to welcome collaboration with the UNDP, the key focus remains linking reporting to implementation, scaling up innovations, and strengthening coordination across institutions. Transparent, inclusive, and data-driven systems are helping the country move beyond compliance towards measurable, lasting impact that benefits both people and planet.
Namibia’s journey offers a broader message for Africa and the world:
- Transparency should drive transformation, not just documentation;
- Data must inform policy and investment; and
- Climate ambition must advance development, not delay it.
From BTR1 to NDC 3.0, Namibia’s story is one of credible climate governance, where transparency builds trust, evidence drives action, and ambition delivers development.
As COP30 convenes, Namibia’s experience shows that when transparency, evidence, and ambition align, climate action becomes development action. It is a call for global cooperation built on fairness, trust, and shared responsibility. It is a reminder that good faith, informed negotiation, and equitable partnerships remain the foundation of a just global transition. A call that resonates far beyond Namibia’s borders.
A lone elephant walks across the Etosha Pan, a reminder of nature’s quiet beauty and endurance. This is a keystone species the delicate balance of Namibia’s dry ecosystems. Etosha National Park, Namibia.
UNDP Namibia