COP19 - Climate Action in Developing Countries: Case Studies from South Asia and Africa

At the time when the UNFCCC was agreed by global leaders as a guiding framework for climate policy, developing countries had hoped that developed world will be true to their word and deliver necessary mitigation results allowing developing countries a breathing space in their pursuit to design a sustainable development path. Two decades on, those hopes stand shattered. Recognising early the non-leadership attitude of developed world, many developing country governments and other stakeholders, particularly the Knowledge Institutions, proactively began to mobilize climate action and research in developing countries. Over last few years, there have been many success stories from these efforts. And now, there is a growing discourse on finding ways to build on this knowledge base, expertize and experiences to give scale and speed to these efforts. This side event, brought together experts from the South Asian and African region to deliberate on this. TERI (India), the first developing country institute to begin working on climate issues drawn from its more than 3 decades of experience and recent studies in African region with ACPC (Addis Ababa) had set out the broad contours of deliberation. LEAD (Pakistan) further elaborated on the insights and issues built on its experience, including that with the CDKN. Experts from the UNDP, ERC (Univ. of Cape Town) and CAN South Asia discussed these issues building on their respective experiences.

Manish Shrivastava from TERI emphasized that while more small projects are in a diverse range of developing countries, this should be combined with aggressive research and development to bring costs down. He also described TERI's work with ACPC. Underscoring that the key sectors for African development are also key sectors for mitigation, he said that there is increasing political and private-sector commitment to mitigation. He mentioned several TERI initiatives ongoing in Africa, inter alia: the Lighting a Billion Lives Campaign; smart multi-utility mini grids for rural and urban areas; biomass gasifiers; and improved cook stoves.

Speakers:

Chair:
Mr Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, CEO, LEAD

Setting the platform
- Mr Ali T Sheikh (LEAD): Lessons from Asia for other regions in pursuit of climate compatible development
- Mr Manish Shrivastava (TERI): Climate action in Asia and Africa: Insights, opportunities and challenges for low carbon development

Build-on discussions
- Dr Marta Torres Gunfaus (MAPs, Univ. of Cape Town): Corresponding experience from MAPS project
- Mr Pradeep Kurukulasuriya (UNDP): Corresponding experience from the LECB program in Asia and Africa

Networks and collaborations
- Dr Haruna Gujba (ACPC): ACPC's experience with coordinating action and expertise in Africa
- Sanjay Vashist (CANSA): CANSA's experience with building networks within the South and between North-South

Open Discussion / Q & A