Zambia

Zambia has strengthened its green economy framework since 2021. In 2024 it launched a National Green Growth Strategy 2024–2030 that sets a roadmap across four pillars (resilient/low-carbon growth, resource efficiency, natural capital, inclusion). In that same year, Parliament passed the Green Economy and Climate Change Act (Act No. 18 of 2024) with a formal governance structure (Council and Technical Committee), a Measurement, Reporting and Verification system, a Climate Change Fund and provisions to regulate carbon markets, creating a largely legally binding implementation architecture. In 2025, Zambia has submitted its provisional 3.0 NDC to the UNFCCC that maintains the 25% (unconditional) and 47% (conditional) 2030 targets from 2010 levels, and has broadened the scope of sectors covered. The current framework is ambitious, although these planning documents focus primarily on 2030 and not 2050.

The primary corporate governance law (Companies Act No. 10, 2017) remains shareholder-centric, with no requirement for companies to adopt ESG standards. Some private sector companies (mainly major leading firms, mining, extractives,...) are doing ESG reporting, and investor interest on sustainability standards is increasing. But much of this is voluntary. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Lusaka Stock Exchange have codes of corporate governance that serve as a guiding framework, but compliance is often on a "comply or explain" basis. Gender diversity on boards and employee involvement in decision-making is promoted through limited guidance and voluntary frameworks rather than legal quotas. The government has integrated SDGs into its national development plans, such as the National Green Growth Strategy (2024-2030). This strategy encourages collaboration between the public and private sectors to achieve sustainability goals. Still, it doesn't contain a mandatory corporate governance framework with targets or incentives for private companies.

The new Regulatory Impact Assessment Handbook (2024) mandates that regulatory agencies conduct RIAs when proposing new regulations or amendments, including stakeholder consultation and cost-benefit analysis. In environmental regulation, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regime under the Environmental Management Act requires public participation (scoping, public comment, hearings) as part of project approval. But the RIA system is relatively new and not yet fully enforced in all ministries; consultations often emphasize business/regulatory burdens rather than inclusive social dimensions; and there is limited evidence that impact assessments systematically integrate marginalised groups. The Constitutional Court's June 2025 ruling that the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Bill No. 7 of 2025 was unconstitutional due to a lack of "wide public consultation" sets an important judicial precedent for demanding public participation in constitutional reforms, as required under Article 79.

Under the WAVES (Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services) programme, Zambia has developed forest, land, water natural capital sub-accounts. The 2023 “Zambia Natural Capital Accounts: Policy Implications” report documents how these accounts are being tied into the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP 2022–2026). The 8 NDP itself aims for "Socio-economic transformation for improved livelihoods", centering development on people and sustainability. That said, beyond GDP metrics such as wellbeing, social capital or wealth frameworks covering multiple capitals (human, social, physical, financial) are not yet institutionalised.

The Bank of Zambia issued Green Loans Guidelines 2023 under its Banking & Financial Services Act, which require banks to adopt internal green loan policies, reporting standards, and direct lending toward biodiversity, restoration, and low-carbon activities. This is a concrete regulatory step to shift financial flows. There is also evidence of nature-risk stress test modeling applied to Zambia’s banking system, showing the potential for losses in agricultural and mining sectors under natural capital decline, and recommending that central banks incorporate regular environmental stress testing. Further, Zambia’s Financial Stability Report 2024 already models drought/climate shocks as stress scenarios. On the fiscal / policy side, Zambia’s Ministry of Green Economy & Environment and the financial regulators are collaborating on a Green Finance Roadmap and a green taxonomy. However, green finance is still at early stages and many institutions lack capacity to scale green investing.

Zambia maintains its IMF-supported economic reform under the Extended Credit Facility, with progress on debt restructuring and fiscal consolidation.

In 2024, the Ministry of Finance launched a Green Bond Framework and announced an exemption from withholding tax on interest income for green bonds listed on the local securities exchange. This framework is a key outcome of the country's Eighth National Development Plan. The government has issued its first green bonds, mobilizing over US $150 million to finance renewable energy and nature-positive investments.

Zambia reached an agreement with most of its external creditors in early 2025, that has stabilized the economy and created a more predictable environment for fiscal planning. Fiscal consolidation efforts have continued, including the sustained reform of fuel subsidies, which are now managed through cost-plus pricing rather than government subsidies. Existing tools like feed-in tariffs and renewable tax exemptions remain in place.

While the Bank of Zambia has not yet joined the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), it has begun to incorporate climate change considerations into its financial stability assessments.

Broader instruments such as green budget tagging or mandatory environmental stress testing are still absent.

In recent years, Zambia has established the regulatory foundations for greener trade, including a 2024 climate law that regulates carbon markets and establishes a Climate Change Fund, a 2025 national Carbon Market Framework, and a validated green finance taxonomy. But these advances are not yet embedded in its trade agreements or investment partnerships. No explicit carbon pricing is in place, and deforestation and fossil-free supply-chain standards arise mainly from partner regulations (like the EU Deforestation Regulation) rather than Zambia-led trade clauses.

Zambia participates in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), yet there is no evidence of ACCTS-style sustainable development chapters, targeted liberalisation of environmental goods and services, interoperability provisions for taxonomies or carbon pricing, or CBDR-aligned market-access exemptions.

The sustainability orientation and move away from traditional ISDS of the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment (2023) is promising.

Zambia has not yet implemented a carbon tax or emissions trading system covering major sectors. However, the Green Economy and Climate Change Act No. 18 of 2024 establishes a regulatory framework for carbon credits and trading, including institutional oversight and market rules. The government also published a Carbon Market Framework in 2025 that defines the rules of international credit trade, registry functions and fee structures. The implicit carbon pricing via fuel excise taxes covers only a small share (17 %) of emissions. Zambia does not currently have a mandatory, national carbon budgeting system.

The new National Green Growth Strategy 2024-2030, launched in 2024, provides a multi-sectoral framework with objectives for a low-carbon, resource-efficient, resilient, and socially inclusive economy. The strategy is anchored on four pillars that cover key sectors such (agriculture, energy, tourism, and water), and it is aligned with Zambia's Eighth National Development Plan (2022-2026), and its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. The new Green Economy and Climate Change Act of 2024 provides legal foundation for these policies, and the National Energy Compact and the Nature, People and Climate Investment Plan (both from 2024) outline concrete projects and targets for renewable energy and climate-smart agriculture.

The government has established the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment to ensure coordination and oversee green policies. In collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the African Union Commission, and other partners, is in process of finalizing a National Climate Finance Strategy.

The National Green Growth Strategy 2024–2030 references circularity and resource efficiency as key pillars and pathway to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy, but there is no economy-wide circular economy action plan or roadmap with targets. Measures are mostly sectoral: the Solid Waste Regulation and Management Act (2018), Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations (from 2018, now in 2025 under draft revision), and a waste stream roadmap focused on plastics. The revision of the EPR regulations, if adopted, could be a major step forward as they mandate producers to bear financial and physical responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products and packaging. The regulations also aim to promote the design of environmentally friendly products and establish take-back schemes. In addition, the Circular Zambia Forum 2025 highlighted progress in various sectors, showcasing companies that are implementing circular business models in mining, manufacturing, and energy. There’s also cooperation with the EU on circular value chains for critical raw materials and capacity-building through the EU-funded "Green Recycling Enterprises Engaging in New Technology for a Circular Economy in Zambia (GREEN Tech4CE)" project. Overall, no national green/circular public procurement standard, no repair/consumer rights framework, and no CMUR target in place.

Zambia has in place fiscal incentives for EV uptake (removal of customs duty on EVs/charging systems in the 2024 Budget; reduced excise duty on hybrid vehicles to 25%) and and has cleaner fuel standards (low-sulphur diesel, since 2022). But no national CO₂ vehicle emissions standards and no targets for electrified public transport or EV infrastructure deployment. There is no funding plan for EV infrastructure across urban and rural areas

The Zambia-DRC-Morocco e-mobility roadmap, a trilateral agreement, is working towards building a regional EV value chain. On a different note, the Zambian Electric Mobility and Innovation Alliance (ZEMIA) has been instrumental in advocating for additional policies, like the government's commitment to ensure at least 50% of its new fleet comprises EVs.

Building on the efforts to reduce over-reliance on hydropower and diversify its electricity mix, Zambia approved an Electricity Open Access Framework in 2025, to enhances private sector participation by allowing independent power producers to use the national grid. The government has also streamlined the approval process for solar projects, reducing timelines to fast-track investments.

Zambia’s Energy Compact and National Green Growth Strategy set an ambition for non-hydro renewables to constitute 33% of generation capacity by 2030, scaling up to 56% by 2050.

The establishment of the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment and the launch of the National Green Growth Strategy 2024-2030 provide a clear, overarching framework for green employment. This strategy explicitly identifies green job creation as a key priority across multiple sectors.

In 2025, the Green Nexus Programme, supported by the EU, began mobilizing support for sustainable growth and to promote green jobs and skills development within green sectors

A World Bank report from 2025 estimates that by 2030, Zambia could attract up to $21 billion in new investments and generate approximately 80,000 formal green jobs, driven by strategic reforms in agriculture, energy transitions, circular economy, and services

The 2025 Revised National Social Protection Policy acknowledges vulnerabilities caused by climate change and calls for shock-responsive social protection to help households withstand climate and environmental shocks. In 2024, the government launched a Demand Stimulation Incentive to support rural mini-grid deployment and help power productive community uses, explicitly targeting rural and underserved areas. Civil society has advocated for a Just Transition Work Programme, demanding governance, social dialogue and benefit sharing in climate policies. Zambia’s transition planning in the energy and mining sectors is increasingly discussed in the context of energy transition minerals, as exemplified by the Energy Transition Minerals Roadmap for Zambia published in 2025, which emphasizes inclusive and sustainable growth approaches in the mining sector. However, efforts are fragmented and experimental, not yet a national strategy. No binding guidelines or sectoral just transition policies.

Since 2021, the government, in partnership with international organizations, has initiated targeted support programmes that provide capacity building and financial assistance to MSMEs. A decisive step was the creation of the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development in 2021. More recently, the National Green Growth Strategy (2024-2030) has provided a high-level policy framework that explicitly identifies MSMEs as key players in the transition to a green economy. In practice, this commitment is evident in a number of initiatives, for instance the "Accelerating the Adoption and Deployment of Renewable Energy Technologies in Zambia" project, that has provided technical and business development training to MSMEs in the renewable energy sector, or the Green Recycling Enterprises Engaging in New Technology for a Circular Economy in Zambia (GREEN Tech4CE) project, funded by the EU, that has provided technical and financial support to MSMEs and start-ups in the green, circular and digital economies.

Zambia still lacks a formal legal framework for social enterprises, which limits their access to funding and support.

The government's Scaling-up Shock-Responsive Social Protection Project, now in its third phase under World Bank financing, supports bi-monthly cash transfers to vulnerable households, and was extended in 2024 to encompass climate-related shocks.

The revised, UNICEF-supported National Social Protection Policy (2025) constitutes a strategic framework designed to build resilience and address vulnerabilities across a person's entire life. The policy aims to improve the welfare and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable populations by moving away from reactive, one-off interventions to a more systematic and efficient approach.

The new National Green Growth Strategy (2024) and National Adaptation Plan (2023) explicitly recognize social protection as a key tool for building resilience to climate change.

Zambia's current Second National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP II) 2015-2025 explicitly links to global frameworks like the SDGs (14/15) and serves as the national strategy. Ongoing national dialogues are aligning the strategy with the new Global Biodiversity Framework 30x30 target, including through the promotion of Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures.The new National Green Growth Strategy (2024-2030) and the Eighth National Development Plan 2022-2026 integrate environmental sustainability and natural capital, connecting conservation with green economy planning. A new post-2025 NBSAP fully aligned to the GBF is still under development. The NBSAP-2’s implementation has had mixed results. Zambia is also participating in a transboundary biodiversity initiative for Lake Tanganyika, launched in 2025, to address marine and freshwater conservation.

The country is actively producing accounts. As of 2025, Zambia has produced its initial water, forest and land accounts and has launched updated versions of these, reflecting a sustained effort. The country has also expanded its accounting to include tourism, and is working on energy and mineral accounts. These accounts are directly informing the Eighth National Development Plan (2022-2026). In terms of governance, a formal multi-stakeholder governance structure is in place that provides advisory capacity and is closely linked to key ministries, but its influence is through high‐level strategic coordination and collaboration rather than a legally mandated oversight function. The Ministry of Finance and National Planning coordinates the Natural Capital Accounting programme, supported by these multi-stakeholder technical working groups. The Zambia Environmental Management Agency also provides a formal advisory role on environmental assessments.

Zambia has a National Agriculture Policy II (2023–2027) that emphasises productivity, resilience and climate-smart agriculture but does not set food-system-wide targets. Zambia participated in the UN Food Systems Summit (2021) and presented a National Pathway; however, follow-up has not produced a national strategy with binding targets. The government has continued to shift from the traditional Direct Input Supply System to the e-voucher system under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), which allows farmers to choose a wider range of inputs, including those that are more aligned with sustainable farming practices. In early 2025, the government also launched the Sustainable Agriculture Financing Facility (SAFF) to provide small-scale farmers with affordable loans for climate-resilient inputs. Zambia has made some progress in reforming its agricultural subsidy programs, but harmful ones persist.

The removal of fossil fuel subsidies in 2022, though economically painful, represents a major reform that eliminates a significant environmentally harmful policy and frees up public funds, a core component of fiscal reform. The country has developed green bond guidelines and approved a Green Taxonomy, providing nature-positive finance instruments. Furthermore, Zambia has prepared and secured funding for large-scale, nature-focused investment plans that explicitly direct funds to local communities: The Zambia Nature, People and Climate Investment Plan with an expected $34.65 million in direct funding and over $220 million in co-financing to promote climate-resilient livelihoods, agricultural productivity, and forest management. The Transforming Landscapes for Resilience and Development project was approved with $137 million in financing, designed to support Community Forest Management Groups. Projects like the Climate Change Adaptation of Livelihoods through Rural Finance focus on innovative local financing systems to build community adaptive capacities. In 2023, Zambia issued its first green bond (US$ 53.5 million), and in 2024 launched a second of US$ 96.7 million. Nature finance instruments are emerging but not yet comprehensive, and largely project-based.

Its main economic stabilization tools remain largely focused on conventional macroeconomic and debt-related reforms. Establishment of the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment and enactment of the Green Economy and Climate Change Act (No. 18 of 2024). The country submitted a provisional updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2025. In response to the severe 2024 drought, the Bank of Zambia launched a 5 billion Stability and Resilience Facility, with a large portion (approximately 4.7 billion) going to the agricultural, manufacturing and energy sectors, supporting climate-resilient economic recovery in these areas. The government has committed to green reforms in the energy sector and in agriculture. However, the 2025 Budget remains predominantly focused on non-green growth (mining, general infrastructure) and social protection for drought-affected communities, with the agricultural budget still dominated by traditional farming.