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Climate change and international development

19 January - 3 June 2009 - Public events series
A boy stands in a dried up pond near Moyale in the lowlands of Oromia, Ethiopia. A devastating drought has left an estimated 737,000 Ethiopians struggling to survive without access to clean water. (Source: aheavens, Flickr - http://flickr.com/photos/andrewheavens/100067958/)
As climate change negotiations intensify in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, there is determination that a post-Kyoto climate change regime should be development-friendly. Such a regime would:
  • recognise the responsibility of developed countries for historic emissions;
  • give developing countries the space they need for economic growth;
  • help with technology development and transfer; and
  • provide significant funding for forest protection, disaster preparedness and other items on the agenda of mitigation and adaptation.

The journey from Bali to Copenhagen is, in many important ways, one of great opportunity for developing countries. However, it is also a journey beset by risk. Will the special vulnerabilities and needs of the poorest berecognised in the negotiations? Will the negotiators have the incentives and the will to forge a new model of collective action? Will the recession make it more difficult to find the funding needed? And will aid be raided to fundmeasures to address climate change? It is clear that it will be difficult for developing countries to manage both climate changeand the negotiations around the subject.

This series of meetings brought together political leaders and world-class policy analysis. The aim was to accelerate consensus-building on this important issue, and give renewed impetus to efforts to ensure development-friendly outcomes in Copenhagen.