Climate Policy Background

In addition to the financial mechanisms and funds, Annex II Parties are required to take all practicable steps to promote, facilitate and finance, as appropriate, the transfer of, or access to, environmentally sound tech-nologies and know-how to other Parties, particularly to developing countries to enable them to implement the provisions of the Convention (Article 4.5 of the Convention, Article 10 c of the Protocol). While the current climate regime has seen some development in technology needs assessment, identification of bar-riers and capacity building, it has not succeeded in developing mechanisms to effectively enhance technolo-gy development and deployment.

The basic parameters for the negotiations on the future of the climate regime were set at the climate conference in Bali in 2007. In addition to emission reductions by industrialised countries, for developing countries the so-called Bali Action Plan calls for “nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing country Parties in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner.“ Thereby, Bali significantly raised the bar for both sides: For developing countries, the debate has shifted from qualitative commitments to quantifiable mitigation actions. For developed countries, it also constitutes a step change from the past, where support for developing countries was mainly delivered through voluntary contributions to funds and any technology transferred was not measurable. With the Bali Action Plan, developing countries are supposed to undertake quantifiable nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) and these are to be supported by developed countries in an equally quantifiable manner.