On 24 October 2013, Belgium and the Nordic Council of Ministers gathered scholars, stakeholders and negotiators from over 30 countries in Stockholm to discuss Equity in the context of the UN climate change negotiations.
Being a follow-up to the meeting in Brussels in November 2012 (see report in French or Dutch), the goal of this meeting was to offer an opportunity to countries to explore ways to make operational the issue of equity in the context of the climate negotiations in general, and more specifically in the context of the current work that is being undertaken under the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform (ADP), that is trying to negotiate a new global climate agreement by COP21 in Paris in 2015.
The presentations of this workshop can be downloaded below.
Opening speech by Melchior Wathelet, State Secretary for Environment, Energy and Mobility, Federal government of Belgium
Introductory remarks by Michael Zammit Cutajar
Session 1 "Framing the equity debate"
- Lessons on equity from other multilateral agreements by David Waskow (World Resources Institution)
- Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities in a regime applicable to all by Lavanya Rajamani (Centre for Policy Research)
Session 2 "Equity and adaptation"
- Equity in adaptation : an LDC perspective by Achala Chandani Abeysinghe (International Institute for Environment and Development)
- Equity and cost-effectiveness of multilateral adaptation finance – are they friends or foes ? by Martin Stadelmann (Climate Policy Initiative)
Session 3 "Equity and mitigation"
- Regional greenhouse gas mitigation targets based on equity principles by Michel den Elzen (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency)
- Climate Security and Equity : Carbon Assets and Bankruptcy Rules for Long Term Pledges by Chai Qimin (National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation / Tsinghua University)
Session 4 "Operationalizing equity"
- Equity and spectrum of mitigation commitments in the 2015 agreement by Steffen Kallbekken (Cicero)
- Operationalizing equitable access to sustainable development Xolisa Ngwadla (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research)
25 October 2013: an informal meeting among negotiators
The next day (October 25th), an informal exchange between climate negotiators was organised. They discussed what steps need to be taken at COP19 in Warsaw, as well as in the two years that are left before 2015, in order to get an equitable agreement that is perceived as fair by all, and that is able to limit global average temperature increase to below 2°C by the end of the century.
The official proceedings from this day can be found here*.
*As the discussions during this day took place under Chatham House Rules, the proceedings are anonymised.