Natural Resources Forum 33 (2009) 257258

Editorial

Climate change and sustainable development

This special issue of the Natural Resources Forum A
United Nations Sustainable Development Journal is being
published as the 15th Conference of the Parties to the
UNFCCC takes place in Copenhagen. The imperative of all
countries is to reach an ambitious, science-based, and
equitable agreement to address climate change. This is
necessary not only for protecting future human lives and
prosperity but also for bridging the deficit of trust between
developed and developing countries. We need to act quickly.
The agreement has focused on five pillars, or core
political issues, namely (a) support for adaptation, (b)
developed country targets, (c) supported developing
country mitigation actions, (d) scaled up and predictable
financial and technological support for mitigation and
adaptation, and (e) institutional arrangements and
governance structures.
These pillars can be described as facilitating
mechanisms; on the one hand, they create enabling
conditions for action, and on the other hand provide a means
of assessing progress in future years. The need now is to
focus on and identify the drivers of action. In what areas will
action take place, who will undertake action, how will they
build upon the facilitation provided by agreement on the
pillars? Not to belabour the metaphor, but while pillars
support buildings, they do not take people from one level to
another. Recent analyses identify four potentially productive
programme areas that could drive the process. These are
potentially productive because they already reflect a broad
global consensus, display considerable momentum because
of a record of action in many countries, are strongly
correlated with both climate change and sustainable
development, and their impact on both these goals can be
monitored quite easily and transparently. These are:
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A global public investment programme in renewable

energy.
A global technical assistance programme in energy
efficiency.
A global programme of incentives for reversing
deforestation.
A quick-start on priority adaptation projects in the most
vulnerable developing countries, especially Least
Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island
Developing States (SIDS).
2009 The Author. Journal compilation 2009 United Nations

First, these are consensus areas. Every national strategy

on climate change includes these four programs; they are
consistent with national priorities, i.e., sustainable
development. Second, there is significant momentum, since
many countries, including all large economies, already have
significant investments in these areas. Third, to reach the
necessary scale, they will require international cooperation,
including financial and technological support from
developed countries, but also South-South cooperation.
Fourth, they are amenable to clear and explicit target setting
and outcome-orientation. The impacts of financial and
technical support can be measured easily. Finally, they have
the potential of creating positive facts on the ground quite
rapidly, which is essential for building trust between
countries and justifying the assumption of additional
cooperative commitments.
Of the four programs mentioned here, two are already
visible in the climate policy discussions as separate and
identifiable programme areas, namely forests, and
adaptation. This specificity and visibility is one reason why
negotiations in these areas have moved much more rapidly.
However, while there is broad recognition of the central role
of renewable energy and energy efficiency in addressing
climate change as well sustainable development, they
remain in the background of global negotiations.
Energy is the driver of economic growth as well as
human development. It would be impossible for developing
countries to maintain their growth momentum without the
availability of expanding energy resources. Similarly, it
would be impossible to achieve human development targets,
including Millennium Development Goals, without
adequate access to modern energy services, especially
electricity. Developing countries are energy poor in three
senses of the term: first, their average per capita
consumption of modern energy services is between onefifth and one-twentieth of that in developed countries;
second, large swathes of the population do not have any
access to such services; and third, the cost of these services
is already so high that it makes it unaffordable for the
majority of their populations except in very small doses.
Addressing climate change requires a switch to
renewable energy as well as a reduction in energy
consumption (while maintaining economic welfare, i.e.,
through energy efficiency). However, at this point

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Editorial / Natural Resources Forum 33 (2009) 257258

renewable energy is even more costly that conventional

modern energy from fossil fuels. The only way of
reconciling the goals of greenhouse gas abatement and
sustainable development is through a strategy that explicitly
and consciously seeks to lower the unit cost of renewable
energy generation and thus to bring it within reach of people
everywhere, especially in developing countries.
While the delivered cost for renewable-generated
electricity is still generally higher than for coal and gas, the
costs are coming down and will continue to decline. The
experience in a range of countries, e.g. Germany, Spain and
the U.S., has yielded tried and tested policies for promoting
and stimulating renewable sources of energy, including
feed-in tariffs. These could be adapted and applied in
developing countries. In fact, countries such as China,
India, and South Africa are already adopting variants of a
feed-in tariff. But scaling up and replicating these initiatives
in developing countries requires financial support. A global
fund for renewable energy could support broader adoption
of feed-in tariffs.
Energy efficiency (in appliances, lighting, buildings,
transport and transport systems, and industry) is repeatedly
identified as a low cost mitigation opportunity, and
developing countries with relatively inefficient processes
and technologies arguably have a large potential for lowcost efficiency gains. Every national climate strategy
includes a strong plank on energy efficiency. But various
barriers (e.g. lack of information, inadequate incentives and
lack of appropriate regulation) mean that energy efficiency
has underperformed as a mitigation option. The core of a
global programme in energy efficiency would be the
transfer of technology and knowledge. One model for such
knowledge diffusion is that of the Green Revolution.

Information technologies could facilitate knowledge

sharing and technical assistance.
Highly vulnerable countries, especially the LDCs and
SIDS, have outlined their adaptation needs. So far,
international support for adaptation has not advanced far
beyond planning and some capacity building. The national
adaptation plans of action (NAPAs) prepared by LDCs
identify specific projects that would meet their most urgent
and immediate adaptation needs. The estimated cost is $1-2
billion. The quick start process would begin by funding all
NAPAs, as well as priority adaptation projects in SIDS. This
is a small down payment on meeting adaptation needs of the
most vulnerable countries. Funding could be accelerated
through contributions to the Adaptation Fund, using
streamlined procedures and direct access. Water
management is a key area for support, and one which
intersects with the sustainable development agenda in areas
such as agriculture.
The articles in this issue provide informative insight into
some aspects of these issues. Running through them is a
common thread linking climate change and sustainable
development. With each passing day, we get closer to the
point where one of the planetary boundaries will be reached
and climate change may well be the boundary that is
closest to us. The challenge before us is implementation of
a broad and swift response at the global level, where no
sector offering avenues for mitigation and adaptation to
climate changed is neglected. It is high time we began
focusing on implementing real solutions.
Tariq Banuri
Director
UNDESA Division for Sustainable Development

2009 The Author. Journal compilation 2009 United Nations