Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 2. Options for future climate change architectures 40
types of commitments could also be applied, such as non-binding,
intensity or sectoral targets, or non quantitative commitments such as
the commitment to implement certain policies and measures.
4. Adaptation: A future climate regime should include measures to help
the particularly vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change; even
with the most stringent reduction commitments, some level of climate
adaptation will be necessary. While most authors agree that it is a
crucial part of a future agreement, it has been far less explored to date
than mitigation.
5. Technology: Without technology research, development and
deployment (including transfers and investments) it may be difficult
or impossible to achieve emission reductions at a significant scale. It is
a key element of the future climate regime, but technology will not be
able to limit global emissions to reach low stabilization levels on its
own.
6. Financing: Funding sources for GHG mitigation in developed and
developing countries is a crucial issue in international negotiations on
climate change. International activities on climate need financial
resources; they might be implicitly included in emission targets or
explicitly expressed in the form of e.g. levies on emission intensive
activities. Financing efforts are more likely to be successful if
implemented through private sector engagement and not from
government budgets. Hence, indirect financing mechanisms are
necessary, e.g. emission targets, access to renewable energy markets,
levies.
These are mainly the four building blocks that were mentioned in the 13 th
Conference of the Parties (COP 13) in Bali as part of a future climate agreement:
mitigation (elements 1,2,3), adaptation (element 4), technology (element 5) and
financing (element 6). In this study, the focus lies on mitigation commitments
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008