European Capacity Building Initiative

ecbi Publications

ecbi's Publications and Policy Analysis Unit (PPAU) generates information and advice for developing country negotiators that is relevant to the climate negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  

Developing countries often lack the economic and institutional capacity for policy analysis. If negotiators are unable to engage proactively by submitting proposals, responding to proposals from other States, and assessing the impact of global climate policy decisions on their individual States, progress in the negotiations can be hampered by the lack of alternatives and uncertainity. The differences in analytic capacity between developing countries and the industrialised world are often profound – developing countries lack support from organisations like the OECD, for instance, which has an immense apparatus producing thorough and focused reports, including direct advice on future policy responses to each of member country.

ecbi publications aim to be relevant to ongoing negotiations under the UNFCCC, timely, and trustworthy. PPAU works with negotiators from developing countries, sometimes through Editorial Committees, to identify UNFCCC issues where further analysis and policy advice is needed. Global experts are then teamed up with negotiators from devleoping countries to produce Policy Briefs and Discussion Notes. This partnership between experts and negotiators helps to ensure that the process of producing a Brief addresses the specific concerns of developing country negotiators; builds the capacity of developing country co-authors in policy analysis; and also builds ownership of the analysis. 

For new negotiators, and for use in ecbi Regional and Pre-COP Training Workshops, PPAU produces Background Papers and a series of Pocket Guides. These generally provide a more basic analysis of issues for newcomers to the process, along with the background and history of the issue in the negotiations. 

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The 2017 ecbi Pre-COP Training Workshop took place on 4 November 2017, in Derag Livinghotel Kanzler, Bonn. Training sessions focused on: priorities for the Bonn Climate Change Conference; the COP23 agenda; gender; climate finance; negotiating effectively and mock negotiations; and the transparency framework.

Author:
Anju Sharma
Publication Date:
November, 2017

A brief on the need to balance flexibility and utility while develolping the guidance for Adaptation Communications at COP23 and beyond.

Author:
Sven Harmeling
Publication Date:
November, 2017

The 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, now called the Talanoa Dialogue, will address three questions: where are we now; where do we need to be; and how do we get there. It will include a preparatory phase and a political element. That much is clear, but key issues remain to be resolved. How will preparatory phase will feed into the political element? How can non-Party stakeholders engage effectively? What should the inputs and outputs of the Dialogue be? How can the Dialogue – which is a collective process – contribute to enhancing the climate ambition of individual Parties? This policy brief considers these issues, and offers suggestions for the way ahead.

Author:
Kaveh Guilanpour, Orlando Rey, Achala Abeysinghe & Mbaye Diagne
Publication Date:
November, 2017

Not satisfied with only a “National” Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), Nepal pioneered a framework for Local Adaptation Plans for Action (LAPAs) in 2011, and committed to ensuring that at least 80% of the financial resources available for climate change will be channelled to the local level.What lessons can Nepal’s experience in devolving climate finance and action offer to the international community, and in particular to the Green Climate Fund’s Enhanced Direct Access modality, which aims to promote sub-national, devolved access? This paper examines the National Climate Change Support Programme, a bilaterally-funded programme to develop and implement LAPAs in Nepal, to draw lessons for the GCF and for other developing countries.

Author:
Anju Sharma, Raju Pandit Chhetri & Dharam Uprety
Publication Date:
October, 2017

The 2017 ecbi Regional Training Workshop for Anglophone Africa took place on 5 & 6 June 2017 in Dakar, Senegal. The workshop, organised in collaboration with ecbi’s regional partner Energie Environnment Développement (ENDA), was attended by 24 negotiators from the region. 

Author:
Publication Date:
July, 2017

Are we doing enough to address climate change? Are countries living up to their promises? Are some doing better than they pledged? Transparency is key for answering these questions. This ecbi Pocket Guide traces the evolution of transparency arrangements under the UNFCCC right up to the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. It addresses both transparency of action and of support, and suggests ways to strengthen both these important elements of the global climate regime.

Sous la CCNUCC - Flipbook, Francaise

Author:
Anju Sharma
Publication Date:
May, 2017

Are we doing enough to address climate change? Are countries living up to their promises? Are some doing better than they pledged? Transparency is key for answering these questions. This ecbi Pocket Guide traces the evolution of transparency arrangements under the UNFCCC right up to the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. It addresses both transparency of action and of support, and suggests ways to strengthen both these important elements of the global climate regime.

Are we doing enough to address climate change? Are countries living up to their promises? Are some doing better than they pledged? Transparency is key for answering these questions. This ecbi Pocket Guide traces the evolution of transparency arrangements under the UNFCCC right up to the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. It addresses both transparency of action and of support, and suggests ways to strengthen both these important elements of the global climate regime.

Author:
Harro van Asselt, Romain Weikmans, and J.Timmons Roberts
Publication Date:
May, 2017

Whether or not the regime emerging from the current negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be based on an explicit cost/burden sharing formula, the debate about (implied) costs/burdens will be central. Such a debate cannot be genuinely meaningful in the absence of an acceptable operationalisation of Article 3.1 in general, and of the concept of ‘respective capability’ in particular.

The Brief proposes a measure for national 'differentiated economic capabilities ('ability to pay') as integral part of an operationalisation. The primary purpose of the measure is to define or assess climate change cost/burden sharing (schemes). To illustrate the potential use of this methodology the Brief considers two examples: assessing the fairness of a given cost distribution; and developing a (rule-based) 'graduation scheme' regarding obligations to pay.

This is a second revised edition of the original ecbi Policy Brief by Benito Müller & Lavan Mahadeva that served as summary for policy makers of a technical report by the same authors published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, available at the link below. The revision is mainly with regards to the final section on determining ‘Levels of Capability’.

Author:
Benito Müller and Lavan Mahadeva
Publication Date:
January, 2014

ecbi Finance Circle meeting with Transitional Committee members

speaking notes

Author:
Benito Müller
Publication Date:
April, 2011

The Tenth Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action

Author:
Momodou Njie
Publication Date:
June, 2010

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