Silvia Cazzetta 1
ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACHES
3 Implementing SSCCC
3.1.3 Platform for SSCCC promotion
As a follow-up of the SSCCC Forum in Lima, NDRC called for, inter alia, the development of a ‘Platform for Promoting South-South Cooperation on Climate Change’, which would serve as a long-term mechanism for enhancing mutual learn-ing and knowledge sharlearn-ing (through cooperative research and projects), capaci-ty-building (through trainings for institutional capacity, public climate awareness and technology development), and policy support (strengthening the science-policy interface to facilitate dialogue in and among developing country governments), as well as technology exchange (through technology demonstration and the sharing of solutions) across developing countries.78
The establishment of a new platform would be beneficial to catalyze and comple-ment the efforts of existing networks that promote climate action in developing countries and promote exchanges at the regional and interregional level. Nota-ble examples include the UNEP-GAN (Global Adaptation Network)79 members:
73 Liu Hongqiao, ‘China pledges USD20 million a year to its new South-South Cooperation Fund’, China-dialogue of 12 December 2014, available at <https://www.chinaChina-dialogue.net/blog/7596-China-pledges- <https://www.chinadialogue.net/blog/7596-China-pledges-US-2-million-a-year-to-its-new-South-South-Cooperation-Fund/en> (visited 31 March 2016).
74 Hannam et al, ‘Developing country finance’, supra note 72.
75 Moritz Weigel, China’s Climate Change South-South Cooperation: Track Record and Future Direction (UNDP China, 2016).
76 Thanks to a non-bureaucratic and unconditional provision of support, with simple approval procedures and efficient delivery, China’s approach to SSCCC is broadly recognized.
77 Stephen Minas, ‘FPC Briefing: Climate change cooperation within the Global South: Finance, policy and institutions’ (the Foreign Policy Centre, undated), available at <http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/1628.pdf>
(visited 31 March 2016).
78 UNEP-IEMP, First SSCCC Forum Meeting Report (2015).
79 See the Global Adaptation Network website, available at <http://ganadapt.unep.org> (visited 31 March 2016).
Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN),80 African Adaptation Knowledge Net-work (AAKnet),81 West Asia Regional Network on Climate Change (WARN-CC),82 and Regional Gateway for Adaptation and Technology in Latin America and Car-ibbean (REGATTA).83 These networks represent an important basis for promoting SSCCC. Besides UN Agencies (not only the UN Environment, but also UNDP, UN-Habitat,84 etc.), several international organizations around the world have also shown proactive engagement in coordinating and supporting South-South exchang-es – for instance, the World Bank,85 GIZ,86 and WWF,87 to name but a few.
As a preliminary proposal by UNEP and NDRC, the mission of the platform would be to promote SSCCC and scale up mitigation and adaptation actions in develop-ing countries, in ways which would be compatible with their respective capabilities, national circumstances and sustainable development priorities.88 Thematic areas to deal with could reflect the key sectors and intervention modalities identified as stra-tegic functions and directions of SSCCC, as indicated in Part 2 above. The platform should be open and inclusive, and it may also serve the purpose of catalyzing funds for project implementation.
4 Conclusions
In recent years, South-South Cooperation has demonstrated its potential to contrib-ute to all building blocks of climate change responses: capacity-building, finance, knowledge, policy, and technology, covering both adaptation and mitigation. De-veloping countries have increasingly engaged in concerted efforts to share lessons and experiences; some of them have even taken leads in defining and implementing low-carbon, climate resilient development pathways (see examples provided in Part 1.2 of this paper).
The importance of South-South Cooperation on Climate Change was acknowl-edged by ministers, principals of UN agencies and other prominent international
80 See <http://www.asiapacificadapt.net/>.
81 See <http://www.aaknet.org/>.
82 See
<http://ganadapt.unep.org/index.php/regional-networks/warn-cc>-83 See <http://www.cambioclimatico-regatta.org/index.php/en/>.
84 UN-Habitat is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future. See <http://un-habitat.org/>.
85 World Bank client countries share experiences through the Knowledge Sharing for Results platform. See South-South Facility, available at <http://knowledgesharingfordev.org/what-south-south-facility> (visit-ed 31 March 2016).
86 See GIZ, ‘Global Agendas’, available at <https://www.giz.de/en/ourservices/1410.html> (visited 31 March 2016).
87 See for example: WWF, ‘South Asian nations pledge cooperation on rampant wildlife trade’ (2008), available at <http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?124200/South-Asian-nations-pledge-cooperation-on-rampant-wildlife-trade> (visited 31 March 2016).
88 UNEP-IEMP, ‘Strategic Dialogue on South-South Cooperation on Climate Change’. Meeting report (2015).
organizations who gathered for the first and second session of the SSCCC Forum
− held in Lima and Paris in conjunction with COP20 and COP21, respectively.
On those occasions, the necessity to give SSC appropriate political weight in the climate negotiation context was emphasized. Further to this, it was suggested that all initiatives and funding mechanisms under the UNFCCC, national and inter-national alike, should include a South-South dimension in their respective work programmes.
The new international climate agreement finalized at COP21 in Paris in December 2015 represents a key opportunity for both the South and the North to confront the climate change challenge. SSC, an important modality of international cooper-ation, can play a fundamental role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
As an example, it could contribute to strengthening countries’ capacity for accessing new flows of resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation; it could also help them make a stronger case for availability of, and simpler access to, scaled up resources.
After countries have formally ratified the Paris Agreement, there will still be many operational details of the new framework to be discussed and decisions to be made.
In this context, in 2016 the SSCCC Forum initiative was re-launched as a standing policy mechanism, with the goal of setting the compass for SSC in the implemen-tation of the Agreement.89 Jointly led by the United Nations (UNEP and UN-EO-SG) and China (through NDRC), this initiative represents another milestone in the development of a platform for ongoing dialogue amongst SSCCC stakeholders in support of enhanced and concerted climate action in and for the global South.
89 UNEP-IEMP, ‘Scoping Meeting on the SSCCC Forum’. Meeting report (2016).