Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 5. Conclusions 234
3.2 The role of developing countries
It is clear now that developing countries will have to take action, yet, at
the same time, fighting poverty and achieving growth and development
are their utmost priorities. Development plans (SD PAMs) should place
climate change – both mitigation and adaptation – at their core.
Developing countries should not be asked to take on binding national
targets until developed countries provide the example of lower carbon
growth and can demonstrate that financial flows to developing countries
will be substantial, and that low carbon technologies will be both
available and shared.
In the meanwhile, a one-sided trading regime such as the CDM – which
rewards developing countries for reducing emissions but does not
punish them for failing to do so – is proposed.
The current CDM structure is not able to generate sufficient financial and
technological support; it needs to move from a project-based to a
programmatic approach, perhaps based on sector-specific efficiency
targets or on technology benchmarks, which would facilitate scaling-up.
The level of ambition of developing country mitigation will go hand-in-
hand with the level of support – financial and technological – from
industrialized countries.
Developing countries’ participation in international climate agreements
emphasizes the need to address equity considerations not only across
countries – common but differentiated responsibilities and capabilities –,
but also within countries – a commitment from the rich people in poor
countries is necessary.
Promoting participation may be the greatest challenge for the design of
climate policy architecture.
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008