ICTSD Global Platform on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainable Energy: Events at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change

30th November – 11th December 2008

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The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznań will be an important milestone in the climate change negotiations. It comes half-way between COP 13 in Bali, which saw the adoption of the Bali Action Plan and launch of negotiations on strengthened international action on climate change, and COP 15 in Copenhagen, when the negotiations are expected to conclude.

On this occasion, the ICTSD Global Platform is pleased to invite you to a series of events that will bring together climate change, trade, agriculture and energy policy makers, negotiators and stakeholders, with a view to provide analytical input into the discussions that will take place at Poznan.

Climate Change Mitigation Technologies in the Energy Supply and Buildings Sector: Trade Realities and Implications for Access to Technologies
Side Event organised by ICTSD, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) and the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
EU Pavillion, Room Chopin – 2nd December, 10:30 – 12:30

Both the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change have highlighted the potential gains from trade liberalisation in clean technologies. The Bali Action Plan recognises the importance of “opportunities for using markets to enhance cost-effectiveness of, and to promote mitigation actions”. The Bali Plan equally gives due regard to “means to incentivise the implementation of adaptation actions”.

As part of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization, trade negotiators have considered proposals for the liberalisation of goods and services providing benefits for climate change mitigation.

However, identifying goods and technologies that clearly provide climate change benefits in key sectors that have been identified by the IPCC and other globally recognised bodies, and examining trade-related barriers and patterns of global trade in those sectors remained uncharted territory. This event will present the outcomes of a trade analysis conducted for key climate-friendly technologies and goods mapped out in two sectors: Energy Supply and Residential and Commercial Buildings, derived from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, and their implications for discussions on transfer of technology within the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and trade liberalisation at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

A post-2012 Technology and Finance Framework: Opportunities and Challenges
Side event jointly organised by ICTSD, the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) and Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex
Friday 5 December, 15:30-17:30 (CCTV2)

Hopes are high that an “enhanced technology and finance framework” will help lead to a constructive consensus in Copenhagen. Considerable efforts have been made over the past year by developed and developing country Parties, researchers, industry, and other stakeholders to advance aspects of such a framework.

This side-event, which ECN, ICTSD and SPRU have collaboratively organised, will provide a synthesis of the technology and finance related inputs with a view to exploring the possibilities for agreement. The event will focus on answering the question of whether and how a technology framework (including its financing) can contribute to an international agreement on climate change.

Climate Change – the Role of Food and Agricultural Trade
Expert Meeting jointly organised by ICTSD and the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC)
9 December, 2008 – 10h00-18h00
By invitation only - please contact Marie Chamay, mchamay@ictsd.ch or Cécile de Gardelle cdegardelle@icstd.ch