South-South Cooperation on Climate Change (SSCCC)

The devastating impacts of climate change cannot be emphasized enough. The prob-lem is real and the consequences are real – on livelihoods, the economy, infrastruc-ture and the environment. As the world is facing these unprecedented challenges, South-South cooperation is emerging as a new dimension of the global response to climate change, an essential complement to traditional North-South cooperation.

In recent years SSC has demonstrated its potential to contribute to all building blocks of climate change responses: capacity-building, finance, knowledge, policy, technology, etc., covering both adaptation and mitigation. Developing countries have increasingly engaged in concerted efforts to share lessons and experiences, and some of them have taken the lead in defining and implementing low-carbon, climate resilient development pathways. Countries like Brazil, China, India¹⁰ and Mexico are not only becoming global economic powers in their own right, but also positioning themselves in the frontline of international climate policy.

5 UNCTAD, UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics (2013), available at <http://unctad.org/en/pages/Publica-tionWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=759> (visited 31 March 2016).

6 UNDP, Evaluation of UNDP Contribution to South-South and Triangular Cooperation (2008-2011) (2013), available at <http://web.undp.org/evaluation/evaluations/thematic/ssc-2013.shtml> (visited 31 March 2016) at 9.

7 TTSSC, Unlocking the potential of south-south cooperation. Policy recommendations from the Task Team on South-South Cooperation (2011), available at <https://www.oecd.org/dac/effectiveness/TT-SSC%20 Policy%20Recommendations.pdf> (visited 31 March 2016) at 00.

8 Draft fourth cooperation framework for South-South cooperation (2009-2011), UN Doc. DP/CF/

SSC/4/Rev.1 (2008) 4.

9 Karin Vazquez, Enhancing Management Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation. Study on Country-led Practices (United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and Japan International Cooperation Agency, 2013), available at <https://www.cbd.int/financial/southsouth/undp-enhancing.

pdf> (visited 31 March 2016) at 29

10 Since 2008, Brazil, China and India, together with Russia (the so-called BRIC countries, or BRICS since South Africa joined the group in 2011) have organized annual meetings to discuss issues of global signif-icance, including energy and climate change. See: BRICS Information Center, available at <http://www.

brics.utoronto.ca/about.html#bricsinfo> (visited 31 March 2016).

China in particular has shown a very strong political will to promote an ‘ecological civilization’¹¹ and has committed substantial resources to support other developing countries facing the threat of a changing climate (see also Box 1). Brazil is the coun-try that has arguably achieved the most impressive results in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (the deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon was reduced by over 80 per cent in the last decade¹²); and its energy mix consists of 40 per cent renewables, which is three times the world average.¹³

In its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), India provides an interesting reflection on the country’s history and tradition of ‘harmonious co-exist-ence between man and nature’ and provides details of a very ambitious and compre-hensive strategy to address climate change, combining development and ecological goals.¹⁴ Mexico’s INDC is also worth mentioning, particularly for its emphasis on the potential co-benefits of climate action in terms of health and well-being.¹⁵ Fur-ther to these examples, some African countries (e.g. Ethiopia¹⁶ and Rwanda¹⁷) have developed regulatory frameworks that support the development of climate resilient, low carbon economies. These cases illustrate that in many instances countries in the global South have much to offer to their Southern counterparts, underscoring the possibilities for what SSCCC might have to offer.

The importance of South-South Cooperation on Climate Change was acknowledged by ministers and senior government representatives of developing countries, princi-pals of UN agencies and other prominent international organizations, scientists and

11 The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) pro-vides more information on the concept of ecological civilization in China. See <http://www.cciced.net/

encciced/aboutus/overview/> (visited 31 March 2016).

12 EBC Agência Brasil, ‘Deforestation in Legal Amazon 82% lower in last decade’ (14 August 2015), avail-able at <http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/geral/noticia/2015-08/deforestation-legal-amazon-82-low-er-last-decade> (visited 31 March 2016).

13 Federative Republic Of Brazil, ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contribution Towards Achieving The Objective Of The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change’ (28 September 2015), available at <http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/Brazil/1/BRA-ZIL%20iNDC%20english%20FINAL.pdf> (visited 31 March 2016).

14 India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution: Working Towards Climate Justice (1 October 2015), available at <http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/India/1/

INDIA%20INDC%20TO%20UNFCCC.pdf> (visited 31 March 2016).

15 Mexico’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (30 March 2015), available at <http://www4.

unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/Mexico/1/MEXICO%20INDC%20 03.30.2015.pdf> (visited 31 March 2016).

16 In recent years, the Ethiopian government has established environmental protection agencies at the na-tional level and in all federal states and has actively promoted environmental investments. See Emelie César and Anders Ekbom, ‘Ethiopia Environmental and Climate Change Policy Brief’, Sida›s Helpdesk for Environment and Climate Change (2013), available at <http://sidaenvironmenthelpdesk.se/word-press3/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Ethiopia-Environmental-and-Climate-Change-policy-20130527.

pdf> (visited 31 March 2016).

17 Rwanda has developed an ambitious Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy and is one of the few countries to have developed a national climate change and environment fund. See Republic of Rwanda, Green Growth and Climate Resilience. National Strategy for Climate Change and Low Carbon Develop-ment (2011), available at <http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Rwanda-Green-Growth-Strat-egy-FINAL1.pdf> (visited 31 March 2016).

business leaders, who gathered in 2014 in Lima for the first SSCCC Forum, held in the margins of the 20^th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP20).

On that occasion, the necessity to promote SSC as an integral part of global action on combating climate change was emphasized. These messages were reiterated at the second session of the SSCCC Forum, held at the COP21 Climate Conference in Paris, on 6 December 2015, where the value proposition, future directions and mechanisms of South-South cooperation as ‘an integral part of the future climate architecture’¹⁸ were discussed.

Based on the work conducted under the SSCCC initiative,¹⁹ – particularly the key messages emerging from high-level fora and expert consultations – this paper aims to propose a conceptual framework for South-South cooperation in the context of climate change, reflecting on its niche, functions and strategic directions. Enabling conditions and implementation modalities for enhanced climate action in the global South are also discussed.

18 UNEP, ‘South-South Cooperation Will Be Crucial to Fighting Effects of Climate Change in Developing Countries’ (6 December 2015), available at <http://web.unep.org/climatechange/cop21/south-south-co-operation-will-be-crucial-fighting-effects-climate-change-developing-countries> (visited 31 March 2016).

19 South-South Cooperation on Climate Change (SSCCC) is a broad initiative jointly promoted by Chi-na and the United Nations as part of their mutual commitment and concerted effort to support green growth and climate resilience in the global South.

Box 1. UNEP and China on SSCCC

In recent years, China has started working with organizations in the United Nations system and has developed various initiatives to support other developing countries in addressing climate change impacts. Concrete actions have been taken to assist vul-nerable communities in the South, including capacity-building, knowledge sharing and technology transfer. With China as a driving force, South-South cooperation has increasingly been promoted.

In May 2014, during the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Kenya, a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Chairman, Xu Shaoshi, and the United Nations En-vironment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, Achim Steiner, for the enhance-ment of collaboration on SSCCC. Through this landmark agreeenhance-ment, UNEP and China agreed to harness their ‘strengths, capacities and resources’ to assist countries in the global South to combat climate change.²⁰ A few months later at the UN Climate Summit, China pledged 6 million USD to support the UN in advancing SSCCC.

At the Ministerial Session of the first SSCCC Forum, held in Lima in December 2014, Minister Xie of the NDRC announced the creation of a new ‘South-South’ fund, by doubling China’s contribution to SSCCC. On that occasion, China’s leadership in committing finance and technology transfer to the SSC mechanism was highly com-mended by developing countries’ Ministers and other prominent delegates, including the heads of UNEP, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Frame-work Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). More recently, China reiterated its determination to mobilize financial resources to support green growth and climate resilience across the developing world. In September 2015, Chinese President Xi Jin-ping announced a fund of USD 3.1 billion for SSCCC. This pledge attracted political and media attention worldwide.²¹

In December 2015 the second session of the SSCCC Forum was organized at the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris, with the theme ‘from political commitment to action’.

Co-sponsored by UNEP and NDRC, the Forum highlighted the benefits from acting on climate in synergy and from catalyzing and pooling new resources in the South and for the South.²² Event delegates also recognized the SSCCC Forum as the appropriate setting for bringing together policy-makers to exchange their views on SSCCC and provide strategic directions.

In 2016, the SSCCC Forum was re-launched as a standing policy advisory mechanism.

Besides the annual Forum series in the context of the UNFCCC COPs, which will continue, new streams of activity will be developed to strengthen engagement with policy processes and enhance dialogue among SSCCC stakeholders.

20 UNEP News Centre, ‘New China-UNEP Agreement to Boost South-South Cooperation on Climate Change Adaptation’ (10 May 2014), available at <http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?Docu-mentID=2788&ArticleID=10854&l=en> (visited 31 March 2016).

21 China Daily, ‘UN chief hails China’s role in promoting South-South cooperation’ (27 September 2015), available at <http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2015xivixitus/2015-09/27/content_21991290.htm> (visited 31 March 2016).

22 UNEP-IEMP, Second SSCCC Forum Meeting Report (2016).