South Centre participates in Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized seminar on International Seminar on Trade and Climate Change

Darlan Marti, Programme Officer, Trade for Development Programme, participated in the International Seminar on Trade and Climate Change organised by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with IISD and ICTSD in Copenhagen from 18-20 June 2008.

South Centre Participates in UNFCCC Sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies in Bonn

Mr. Vice YU, Coordinator, Global Governance for Development Programme, South Centre is in Bonn to participate in the twenty-eighth sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change taking place from 4-13 June 2008.

South North Dialogue Series: Building Capacities on Climate Change

South Centre brought together delegates from the developed and the developing world on Aril 16, 2008 as part of its South - North Dialogue Series (SNDS) initiative. Participants from the North included those from Norway, Switzerland, Germany and France while from the South it included delegates from Maldives, Mexico, China, Indonesia and Philippines; and some NGO's like Third World Network, ICTSD, IGSD and E3G Third Generation Environmentalism.

This SNDS initiative was aimed at strengthening the participation of developing countries in climate change negotiations and to forge an alliance with developed partners in capacity building, financing and technology transfer. The event was organized in the light of the ongoing Bangkok talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The perspective of the developed countries was summarized by H.E. Mrs. Marie-Louise Overvad, Ambassador of Denmark, who acknowledged the higher responsibility of the North in climate change "mitigation" and "adaptation" and its moral obligation to help developing countries counter the adverse effects of global warming.

From the South, H.E. Mr. I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, Ambassador of Indonesia, emphasized the importance of political partnerships and active involvement of all nations, if the hard-won victory in Bali is to survive and deliver.

Mrs. Bernarditas Muller, a senior negotiator from the Philippines (and now the G-77) on climate change and South Centre advisor, elaborated on the role of capacity strengthening as a cross-cutting issue which should be demand-driven and tailored to fit the needs of developing countries instead of simply being imported from the North experience. A lot has been achieved in Bali and political will and efforts should be channelled through the UNFCCC avenue rather than splitting resources and creating alternative venues for action.

The Event concluded with a common agreement that whatever capacity-building and financing should happen on climate change, should be under the Convention.

South North Dialogue: Capacity Building in Climate Change for Developing Countries

Capacity-building for developing countries to be able to adapt to climate change will be an important component in further enhancing the global cooperative framework for action on climate change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The key question is how best to undertake capacity-building, together with the provision of financing and technology transfer under the Convention, to strengthen participation of developing countries in meeting the developmental challenges of climate change. This is an issue which needs to be discussed in a North-South as well as South-South context and forms the theme of our upcoming South - North Dialogue Series to be held on 16 April 2008 at the South Centre from 1300 - 1530.

Please RSVP your participation to: Mrs. Shirley de Leon-Garnier, By email: deleongarnier@southcentre.org, By telephone: 022 7918055 ext. 29

Opening address will be provided by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre. Perspectives will be shared by H.E. Mrs. Marie-Louise Overvad, Ambassador of Denmark, and Ms. Reena Wilfrid-René, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Mauritius. Closing remarks will be provided by Mr. Vice Yu, Lead Expert on Climate Change, South Centre.

The South North Dialogue Series is an activity taken up under the South Intellectual Platform of the South Centre.

For further details on the event, see the Events section at http://www.southcentre.org

Continuing Challenge on Development and Climate Change Beyond Bali

The recent edition of Roundup published an article written by Mr. Vice Yu, Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme. The article draws on his reflections of the outcomes of the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Bali, Indonesia.

``....The Bali talks were also notable in being the forum in which the United States, as a result of pressure from the other UNFCCC Parties (especially developing countries) and in the full view of the international public, NGOs, and media, was pulled into joining a consensus that it had strenuously resisted and sought to water down. This might mean that the US would then be seriously engaged in the post-2012 UNFCCC process...``

Read the complete article at:
http://www.un-ngls.org/site/IMG/pdf/RU131.pdf

South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights (Issue 7) is out

The South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights (Issue 7, 16 January 2008) produced by South Centre has been published.

The issue includes the following analysis and commentaries:

• Editorial on Development Dialogue with Donors
• Challenges of Aid Effectiveness- A Way Forward
• Making Aid Accountable and Effective
• US Patent Law Reform - Resolving the Dilemma: Any Lessons for the South?
• Snippets on the Role of the Government
• Op-Ed on Reshaping the Development Cooperation Architecture

The Issue can be downloaded from http://www.southcentre.org/southbulletin/Issue7-16January.pdf

The previous Issue of the South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights (Issue 6, 16 December 2007) focused on Climate Change @ Bali and is available from: http://www.southcentre.org/southbulletin/Issue6.pdf

Enhancing a development agenda in climate change for developing countries

South Centre organized a side event at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali on 5 December 2007. Almost 70 colleagues attended this event on "Enhancing a development agenda in climate change for developing countries" organized in Room Wind at Grand Hyatt.

The panel of speakers included: Vice Yu, South Centre; Matthew Stilwell, Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and Scott Stone (IGSD); Martin Khor, Third World Network; Meenakshi Raman, Friends of the Earth-Malaysia; and Sivan Kartha, Stockholm Environment Institute.

The South FACE produced for the Event is available at:
http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face-Bali_Climate_Change-5Dec.doc

IISD Coverage for this event is available at:
http://www.iisdrs.org/2007/12/day-3-at-clim-1.html

(Photo Credit: Earth and News Bulletin, IISD)

South Centre at Climate Change Negotiations @ Bali

The 13th session of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is underway in Bali from 3-14 December 2007. Delegates gathered will deliberate on a range of agenda items, with a major focus being on post-2012 when the first commitment period of the Kyoto protocol will expire.

South Centre has the status of an "Observor" at the UNFCCC negotiations and is represented in Bali by Vice Yu, Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme and by Vikas Nath, Head - Media and Communication.

A side event "Advancing a Development Agenda on Climate Change" is being organized here on 5 December by the South Centre.

Advancing a development agenda on climate change for developing countries

South Centre is organizing a side-event on 5th December (Wedneday) at the upcoming 13th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia.

Climate change and the development prospects of developing countries are closely linked. These links need to be better understood for countries to have a more integrated and comprehensive approach to both development and climate change policy. This side-event will explore some of these linkages.

Vice Yu, Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme, South Centre will be chairing the Event.

The Event will be held between 13:00-15:00 at Room: Wave (Grand Hyatt). The draft agenda for the event is available at:
http://regserver.unfccc.int/seors/file_storage/rdi15fxw3ydgygm.doc

Joint South Centre and UNU-WIDER Session at Conference on Southern Engines of Global Growth: China, India, Brazil and South Africa (CIBS)

South Centre organized a joint session with the United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) on "Innovations and Technology Transfer" at the WIDER Conference in Helsinki on 7 September 2007.

The session was chaired by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of South Centre, and Dr. Guanghua Wan, Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. Presentations were made on "Patent Application as Indicator of the Geography of Innovation Activities: Problem and Perspectives " by Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre and on "Breaking the Deadlock on Climate Change Related Technology Transfer" by Vikas Nath, South Centre.

The conference focuses on the inter-linkages between CIBS and the global economy, including the impact of these economies on their respective regions. The session by South Centre reflected on the these changes through the lens of innovations and technology transfer and provided an overview of opportunities and challenges presented by them.

Click To View Presentation by Dr. Xuan Li

Click To View the Presentation by Vikas Nath

Open Consultation on the Internet Governance Forum 2007

Ms. Viviana Munoz Tellez, Programme Officer, Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme at South Centre participated in the Open Consultations on Internet Governance held on 3 September 2007 in Geneva in preparation for the second annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro 12-15 November 2007.

The South Centre will be elaborating a background note to assist developing country delegates in participating in the upcoming IGF.

The IGF is an outcome of Phase II of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis on November 2005. As a forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on Internet Governance, the IGF is mandated to discuss public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet. Its mandate also includes advising all stakeholders in proposing ways and means to accelerate the availability and affordability of the Internet in the developing world and to contribute to capacity building for Internet governance in developing countries.
The five broad themes for the second annual IGF meeting will be: Critical Internet Resources; Access; Diversity; Openess; Security.

Link to the Internet Governance Forum http://www.intgovforum.org/

Climate Change and Development Linkages

On August 27, an informal working lunch was co-hosted by the South Centre and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva (and the President for the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD).

The meeting sought to promote the inclusion and reflection of developing countries’ development concerns in climate change negotiations and the mainstreaming of climate change concerns into sustainable development strategies. There was a convergence among the international community that in Bali there should be an "agreement" about the basic elements, principles, areas of concern, common areas, and resources needed for the materialization of an effective post Kyoto regime.

The participants agreed that the development dimension has been put aside in the climate change context. For instance while the Annex I countries discuss the aspect of mitigation, the real concerns of developing countries are adaptation, technology transfer, additional resources, and capacity building. There is a need to address this issue in the negotiation processes, including those beyond the UNFCCC itself.

Commentary: Linking Climate Change Policy with Development

Vice Yu, Head of Global Governance for Development Programme (GGDP), South Centre and the inhouse Climate Change Expert speaks at a side-event Development and Climate Change: Managing Risks, Realizing Opportunities" to the UN ECOSOC Session in Geneva on 13 July 2007 on how climate change is a sustainable development issue.

Click here to listen to his commentary on how climate change issue has to be viewed from the perspective of common but differentiated responsibilities between North and South. And it requires multilateral cooperation on development financing, debt relief, humanitarian assistance, disaster and risk prevention and mitigation, and technology transfers. Equally required is a supportive and enabling international economic policy architecture to address the specific climate change concerns of SIDS’ and LDCs’ as an urgent global priority.