ASrIA - International Initiatives

Climate change is primarily being addressed multilaterally through emission reduction targets and associated mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol e.g. carbon emissions trading. The following pages list some of these initiatives and the implementing organisations. However initiatives which tend to be voluntary in nature are also being undertaken independently at the country level and include government as well as corporate programmes. Such initiatives are addressed in different sections of this site.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)
http://www.adb.org/REACH/default.asp

ADB's Technical Assistance program on climate change includes capacity building activities on generic climate change issues and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) with emphasis on renewable energy and energy efficiency, carbon sequestration, and adaptation.

ADB is currently engaged in two programs, the Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change (REACH) Program and the Energy Efficiency Initiative.

The REACH program, established in 2002, supports the application of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas abatement technologies in ADB's developing member countries and is funded by the governments of Canada, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. REACH has already successfully carried out work in capacity building, project identification, and project due-diligence across 18 countries.

The Energy Efficiency Initiative, meanwhile, will boost investments and activities in energy efficiency - both from the supply and energy use sides - and also renewable energy.

ADB recently announced its Carbon Market Special Initiative that is looking into the merits of establishing a dedicated carbon co-financing facility. This facility, unlike other emission credit procurement vehicles currently available, would provide up-front funds to project sponsors.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)
http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/p_2005SustReport_15/$FILE/ClimateChange.pdf

IFC is taking a leading role in developing new business models that stimulate private sector investment in sustainable energy and at the same time support sustainable economic development in emerging markets. The IFC helps finance clean energy projects that contribute to reducing rising greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. This is done primarily with concessional resources from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the financial mechanism for the climate convention (http://www.gefweb.org). In recent years, IFC has been actively seeking to finance a greater number of energy efficiency (EE) projects and to develop special initiatives to accelerate the market penetration of these technologies.

IFC is actively seeking to participate in the financing of energy projects based on the use of renewable energy resources. Efforts focus on renewable energy technologies such as: run-of-the-river and conventional hydro, geothermal, biomass, wind, and solar (photovoltaic and solar thermal).

IFC has also established Carbon Finance Facilities. The Facilities are arrangements under which IFC will purchase carbon credits for the benefit of the Government of the Netherlands under the international emission reduction transfer rules of the Kyoto Protocol. IFC presently has about $100 million under management in two facilities to purchase credits: (i) the IFC-Netherlands Carbon Facility (INCaF) operating under the rules of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM); and (ii) the Netherlands European Carbon Facility (NECaF) operating under the rules of the Joint Implementation (JI) mechanism and managed jointly with IBRD. Payments for carbon credits purchased will be made to eligible projects in emerging markets and will provide them with additional revenue. The Government of the Netherlands will use the purchased credits to meet its GHG reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. The credits will be purchased and paid for regardless of whether or not the Kyoto Protocol is in force.

In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This group issued a first assessment report on climate change in 1990 which reflected the views of 400 scientists. The Panel's findings spurred governments to create the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (UNFCCC) The Convention was ready for signature at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development - more popularly known as the "Earth Summit" - in Rio de Janeiro.

IPCC now has a well-established role. It does not conduct its own scientific inquiries, but reviews worldwide research, issues regular assessment reports (there have now been three), and compiles special reports and technical papers. The IPCC's findings, because they reflect global scientific consensus and are apolitical in character, form a useful counterbalance to the often highly charged political debate over what to do about climate change. IPCC reports are frequently used as the basis for decisions made under the Convention, and they played a major role in the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol, a second, more far-reaching international treaty on climate change that entered into force on 16 February 2005.

UNFCCC sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. It recognizes that the climate system is a shared resource whose stability can be affected by industrial and other emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Convention enjoys near universal membership, with 189 countries having ratified. The UNFCCC website provides information for beginners or experts - such as introductory and in-depth publications, the official UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol texts, a search engine to the UNFCCC library, and a glossary of climate change terms.

The Kyoto Protocol , established in 1997, significantly strengthens UNFCCC by committing Annex I Parties to individual, legally-binding targets to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Only Parties to the Convention that have also become Parties to the Protocol (i.e. by ratifying, accepting, approving, or acceding to it) will be bound by the Protocol�s commitments. 163 countries have ratified the Protocol to date (as of April 2006). Of these, 35 countries and the EEC are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below levels specified for each of them in the treaty. The individual targets for Annex I Parties are listed in the Kyoto Protocol�s Annex B. These add up to a total cut in greenhouse-gas emissions of at least 5% from 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008-2012.

UNEPFI Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative
http://www.unepfi.org

The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) is a unique global partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the private financial sector.

UNEP is working to create the policy and economic framework where sustainable energy can increasingly meet the global energy challenge. Changing attitudes and helping mainstream financiers to consider sustainable energy investments are key components of the energy work within UNEP and the starting point for the Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI), a partnership between UNEP FI, UNEP Energy, and the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE). SEFI aims to foster a sustainable energy finance community that brings together financiers, engages them to do jointly what they may have been reluctant or unable to do individually, and catalyses public-private alliances that together share costs and lower barriers to investment.

Through its Climate Change Working Group, UNEP FI's work is focused on carbon finance, national and international policy and regulation debates, and renewable energy.