Rolph's Journal: European Development Days Roundtable

Climate Change Mitigation, Opportunities and Financing Room 4 - 10.30-13.30

Combining the Fight against Poverty and Climate Change

The pictures of this round table are accessible here

“The whole debate has illustrated the complexity of the issues involved in addressing climate change, in particular issues such as the transfer of technology and reducing greenhouse gases, while simultaneously trying to eliminate poverty... Amongst the experts themselves, the views diverge greatly on how can you achieve the Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction and at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is clear there are no easy answers and clearly no silver bullet.”

Anya Sitaram, Journalist and Broadcaster - Moderator

Panellists debated the complex interplay of issues surrounding how to implement and finance climate change mitigation measures. They generally agreed that mitigation, adaptation and technology transfer are three pillars of equal importance in sustainable policies for tackling climate change.

Marina Ploutakhina from UNIDO pointed to the broad consensus emerging that a vast array of technological solutions are necessary to address mitigation issues. The good news, she said, is that the vast majority of the technologies needed are already in the public domain.

Given that industry accounts globally for some 37% of greenhouse gases, UNIDO has focused much of its effort on the optimisation of industrial systems. But to maximise efficiency gains one must optimise the whole system. This is complex and requires an extra effort, particularly for developing countries. But many mitigation technologies for improving energy efficiency are inexpensive.

Theodoros Skylakakis of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs also believes that the growing developing world economies must urgently adopt low greenhouse gas growth paths. “The rights decisions must be taken early on since the first stages such as transportation and industrial technologies are binding for the remainder of a country’s development and cannot be reversed,” he explained.

Rolph Payet, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Seychelles, agreed that all the necessary technologies are already out there. “Sometimes we are creating barriers by holding onto the patents to make private financial gain,” he said. ”We have to push harder to put these technologies into use. Photovoltaic cells, for example, have been around for 25 years. Why aren’t they mass produced and cheap?”

MEP Berman encouraged people to think outside of the box: “Agriculture needs a new place in climate change policy. We need to support farmers not just to provide food but for non-food reasons like preventing desertification, and minimising the use of fossil fuels,” he said.

Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien of the Growing Business Foundation in Nigeria urged a change in thinking among donor countries. “A lot of what is called ‘aid’, should be called ‘compensation’ which better reflects the role being bestowed on the economic players in developing countries – ranging from forestry workers to farmers – to help reduce climate problems,” she said.

Training and education play an important role at the local level to increase awareness, explained Mahamadou Sako of Niger. “Climate change science should be taught in universities from primary school level. Our education polices should cater for looking at ways to fight climate change,” he advised.

Manfred Konukiewitz from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development pointed out that the mitigation costs of reducing greenhouse gases involve sizeable sums of money, but not as much as people think. In fact, it is just a fraction of today’s GDP. “Full implementation he said would bring us back to the GPD levels of the 1980s where we didn’t actually live badly,” he said. “It can be financed.”

Berman commented that innovation is driven by laziness, need or obligation. “Our role at the European Parliament is to create obligation,” he said. “But what we are asking for costs money. We must therefore create new sources of money. We could consider raising taxes on the kerosene used in air transportation. It seems ridiculous that such a pollution-intensive resource is tax free. The tax could be redeployed on mitigation measures to counteracting climate change.”

Payet pointed out that such an airline tax would signal the demise of the principal industry of the Seychelles and many other small economies - tourism. Simplistic solutions need to be fully thought through.

“Why not look at the business of carbon trading,” he suggested. “This has become a billion dollar business. How about taking a percentage of the commissions being made and putting it towards adaptation?”

Richard Hosier of the Global Environment Facility explained that his organisation had been working to remove barriers to energy efficient renewables projects. “We believe by removing barriers and creating the enabling environment for sustainable investments we have reduced a billion tons of CO2 emissions,” he stated.

Bernard Petit of the EC’s DG Development highlighted the importance of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007: “With a view to the Bali meeting, the EU has proposed a reduction of 20 per cent in its emissions by 2020. In Bali everyone must assume their responsibility and work towards a joint reduction in emissions.”