Image: IISD

On Thursday, countries continued to discuss the required financial, technology and capacity-building support for developing countries to enable them to build their own clean energy futures and to deal with the impacts of climate change. Further support is needed to sustain and boost action in the many developing nations which have already launched their own plans and to initiate action in those countries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, which are keen to act but constrained in resources. Discussions on this important topic will continue at the next UNFCCC sessions.

One area where there is very significant mitigation potential is energy efficiency. The technical expert meeting on energy efficiency continued, with governments and agencies outlining what they are doing in numerous presentations. (View also the webcast). It was noted that energy efficiency potential exists across all big, key sectors including buildings, transport, industry and appliances. Energy efficiency measures are most often "no-regret" investments, meaning they not only pay for themselves but save significant money over time. However, participants pointed out that market incentives and clearer and stronger national policies are essential to unlock the full potential of the “low-hanging fruit” of climate action in energy efficiency.

International organizations presented examples of the services they provide. The organizations included the International Energy Agency, the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank. All organizations noted that the number of energy efficiency projects in their portfolios is growing, as is the demand for their services. One concrete example of action on the ground shown in Bonn was the UN Environment Programme’s “Enlighten” initiative to support countries in phasing out inefficient incandescent light bulbs. This initiative is a partnership with the private sector with funding from the Global Environment Facility.

Not only governments, but also cities have a major role to play in bending the greenhouse gas emissions curve back into a declining trend with the help of better energy efficiency. The cities network C40 highlighted the need to scale up finance to enable cities to carry out energy efficiency measures, for example by retrofitting existing building stock. C40 highlighted the urgency to act given that major cities face enormous risks from climate change.

Cities and of the urban environment will be the focus of a further round of technical expert meetings in June - during the next UN climate change conference - with an additional focus on land-use change including forests and agriculture. The expert meetings begun this week in Bonn are to continue throughout the year with the aim of encouraging concrete new policies, action and cooperation to deal with climate change to be showcased at COP 20 in Lima.

See previous updates