16 - Sustainable development and climate change negotiations: Perspectives of developing countries

Summary

This chapter provides a reading of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from the perspectives of developing countries, as a basis for the positions taken by developing countries in the UNFCCC negotiations. It focuses on what is referred to as developing country issues in the UNFCCC: adaptation, the financial mechanism, transfer of technology, capacity-building, and non-Annex I national communications, as well as the approach guiding the positions taken by developing countries in negotiating these issues. It also provides recommendations for breaking the impasse and moving forward on many of these issues.

This chapter demonstrates the balance of commitments under the UNFCCC, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities that is embodied in each and every provision of the UNFCCC. It shows that the Convention promotes sustainable development, the pursuit of which is the biggest contribution of developing countries in addressing climate change and its adverse effects, through the integration of climate change considerations in social and economic development policies.

This chapter also points to the contributions of developing countries in the Kyoto Protocol (KP) to dispel the false perception that developing countries do not have commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. While contributing to a protocol that is primarily aimed at rendering adequate the commitments on limitations of emissions of developed countries in the Convention, developing countries also underline the importance of the need for adaptation.

In all this, the chapter maintains that the UNFCCC is a convention that addresses climate change and its adverse effects through sustainable development, which renders it of vital importance to developing countries.

Much has transpired in climate change negotiations affecting all of the issues presented in this chapter. These developments are summarized in the final section to capture the substantive alterations that have occurred since the chapter was first written. Developments on specific issues are added to the sections dealing with these issues.