For two weeks in May, IBES Professor Timmons Roberts, research fellow Guy Edwards, and three undergraduates from the Climate and Development Lab—Tory Hoffmeister '17, Sujay Natson '16, and Jon Gewirtzman '17—traveled to Bonn, Germany for the first round of the UN climate negotiations since the Paris Agreement was adopted last December. This is the only formal negotiating session focusing on the implementation of the Paris Agreement before the annual meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Marrakech, Morocco this November.
Roberts, who is also a Visiting Fellow at the German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn, attended and spoke at a major conference on climate change adaptation in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and presented a plenary address at the Berlin Conference on Global Environmental Governance.
Events:
On Tuesday May 17, the CDL co-hosted a workshop on financing Loss and Damage with the German Development Institute and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD). The event was held at the German Development Institute.
The workshop relates to some exciting research being conducted by the CDL including a number of undergraduate students who led the drafting of a report recently submitted to the UNFCCCC. Alex Durand '16, Tory Hoffmeister, Jon Gewirtzman and Sujay Natson were among a team of CDL students who led the drafting of the paper on how poor nations might be compensated for the impacts of climate change which cannot be prevented. The draft paper is available on the UN website, and will be revised and released in September by the DIE and the final version submitted to two UNFCCC committees. The workshop was used to revise the paper, which will be published by DIE in September before the Marrakesh negotiations. The paper "Financing Options for Loss and Damage: A Review and Roadmap" was jointly prepared by the CDL and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD).
On Thursday May 19, Timmons Roberts and Guy Edwards presented their book A Fragmented Continent: Latin America and the global politics of climate change at the German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). The event was well attended and the book presentation was followed by a healthy discussion with Mexican lead negotiator to the UNFCCC, Alejandro Rivera, and DIE deputy director, Imme Scholz.
Collaborating with partners:
Tory assisted Saleemul Huq of Bangladesh's International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) for the two weeks. She presented a briefing on financing for loss and damage to negotiators of over twenty of the Least Developed Countries group, mostly from Africa and Southern Asia. The work was the culmination of over a year of research by Tory and Alexis Durand for the LDC group on Loss and Damage.
Continuing with their work from the Paris conference, Sujay Natson and Jon Gewirtzman assisted the delegation from the Union of Concerned Scientists while in Bonn. They provided research support and reports from meetings regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies such as carbon pricing and sustainable land use management.
A list of recent publications authored by the CDL about the latest events in climate change politics and policy can be found at the CDL's website.