New Research for Effective Action at Paris and Beyond: Strengthening the Research-Policy Interface in International Climate Negotiations
30th April– 1st May 2015
New Delhi, India
The 2nd Global Climate Policy Conference (GCPC) 2015, was co-organized by the Stanley Foundation and Climate Strategies (with support from the Oak Foundation) on April 30–May 1, 2015, in New Delhi, India.
The conference provided a platform for innovative research and ideas to explore ways to advance climate action, and a better understanding of how research can contribute to improved climate policy- making. It brought together climate-policy researchers and stakeholder experts from around the world.
Key messages from the conference presentations and discussions include:
- As a way to ensure climate justice, the notion of development pathways needs to be fully thought through.
- To enhance climate finance, more innovative approaches such as public-private partnerships, debt-for-climate swaps, and micro-finance require further exploration.
- The policy community should identify new ways to better hold states accountable for their climate pledges.
- Clubs have potential to enhance climate action through accelerated innovation among a key set of players, yet the uncertainty of its feasibility, effectiveness, and process seemed to warrant deeper analysis and investigation.
- Within adaptation, more transformative goals and the need for developing a generalised understanding of adaptation processes from the large range of ongoing projects was highlighted for defining success in both the short-and long-term.
- Exploration of new approaches in loss and damage research such as probabilistic event attribution and legal avenues may be key to formulating climate policy.
- Central to low-carbon technology deployment is the importance of building suitable local capacity as a way to enhance action on the ground in developing countries.
Conference discussions indicated the value of the research and analysis to better understand the key issues pertaining to progress on various dimensions of climate policy and action, and to the development of innovative approaches to help move humanity toward solutions pathways for a safe climate world.
The first four conference sessions on Day 1 featured experts who were selected through an open and competitive process. Each expert presented on how to advance action on key issues in the climate arena. Out of approximately 40 submissions from the research community, the conference organizers selected eight abstracts grouped into four themes:
Session 1: Climate and development
Session 2: Adaptation
Session 3: Public-private partnerships
Session 4: Motivating and enhancing state action
The full version of the papers presented in these sessions are available available for download.
The following conference sessions on Day 2 were designed to progress thinking in clearly predefined areas of mitigation and impact:
Session 5: Investment, carbon pricing, and technology; Adaptation, loss and damage
Session 6: Capacity building panel discussion
Session 7: Implementation challenges for Paris and beyond panel discussion
The post-conference report, New Research for Effective Action at Paris and Beyond includes summaries of the presentations and participant discussions as captured by the rapporteurs. It also includes the conference chair’s summary and co-chairs’ reflections on the parallel tracks.
Presentations
Day 1
Session 1: Climate and Development
Narashima Rao
Tim Stumhofer
Session 2: Adaptation and Climate Change
Dumisani Chirambo
Shailendra Kumar Mandal
Session 3: Climate Change and Public-Private Partnerships
Ahmed Abdel Latif
Mohammad Aatish Khan
Session 4: Motivating and Enhancing State Action
Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen
Day 2
Parallel Session 1: Technology Investment and Carbon Pricing
Michael Grubb
Axel Michaelowa
Vikram Widge
Kasturi Das
Heleen de Coninck
Parallel Session 2: Adaptation, Resilience, Loss & Damage
John Colvin
Indrani Phukan
Friedrike Otto
Lavanya Rajamani