Venue: Room Monet, EU Pavilion, Bella Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: 15 December 2009
Number of Speakers: 2 keynote speakers and 4 panellists, 100 participants
Topics and activities covered
On 15th December 2009, under the umbrella of the Europe-Asia Policy Forum, ASEF organised an official side-event of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 15TH Conference of Parties (COP 15) with the support of the Government of Slovenia on “Institutional set-up of REDD and the involvement of the private sector”.
Avoidance of deforestation had faced a lot of opposition during the Kyoto Protocol negotiations more than a decade before, which eventually led to its exclusion from the Clean Development Mechanism under the agreement. REDD, which refers to the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, emerged as one of the bright spots during the Copenhagen negotiations that otherwise fell short of global expectations.
The aim of the event was to address questions related to the current barriers to the participation of the private sector in a future REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) scheme and present some ideas of how these can be removed as well as what the institutional set-up for the REDD under the UNFCCC (UN Framework for Climate Change Convention) could look like.
The event was split in two parts, the first being keynote presentations—including Dr. Renate Christ, Secretary of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change—on the potentials and challenges of REDD. The second presentation was from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations of Hungary, who acts in a novel responsibility as an ombudsman for sustainable development.
The presentations evaluated existing proposals for REDD and provided an overview of the challenges and opportunities of an REDD scheme. They were able to identify a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure private sector participation and also provided country case studies of REDD implementation schemes. The panelists included representatives from the Asian Development Bank (ADB); Climate Focus, WWF Indonesia and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).
The side-event was the third under the Asia-Europe Environment Forum’s Track II Series, after the first one during COP14 in Poznan, Poland in 2008 and another side-event dealing with REDD and biodiversity that took place in October 2009 in Singapore during the ASEAN biodiversity conference. The event was supported by the Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum) partnership, which is jointly organised by ASEF, the UN Environment Programme, the Hanns Seidel Stiftung and the Japan Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.
Results of this activity
With more than 100 key stakeholders from government agencies, official delegations and NGOs joining the discussions, the side-event provided timely and deeper discussions on the institutional design of a future REDD scheme and presented the Asia-Europe perspective on the international level.
In addition to providing overviews and evaluations of the existing proposals and projects for REDD, the presentations addressed questions related to the current barriers to the participation of the private sector in a future REDD scheme and offered ideas of how these could be removed as well as what the institutional set-up for the REDD under the UNFCCC could look like.
Following the side-event in Copenhagen, as an initiative of ASEF and the Hanns Seidel Stiftung, a policy dialogue in Brussels was organised to bring the outcomes of the side-event in Copenhagen to a Brussels audience and give a de-briefing of the UNFCCC negotiations at the COP15 and also to provide an outlook for Asia-Europe relations in the area of environment and sustainable development in a post-Copenhagen framework. With an audience of about 75 representatives from the European institutions, think tanks and other Brussels-based organisations, the event in Brussels provided an opportunity to raise awareness among decision-makers in Europe about the significance of partnerships between Asia and Europe in the area of climate change and sustainable development. This was seen as a potential model for future Brussels Briefings of the Europe-Asia Policy Forum, under which a briefing on the outcomes of the COP 15 negotiations is planned.
Evaluation:
The UNFCCC COP15 in Copenhagen was the most internationally watched and high-level event in a series of negotiation rounds that were supposed to lead to a new international climate change agreement. The side-event provided a forum to discuss the topic of REDD in a timely and detailed manner, and provide an overview of a specific aspect of the complex issue of REDD to decision-makers and stakeholders present during the COP15. The quality of the discussion was enhanced by the considerable expertise of the speakers and their openness to engage with the attendees who were drawn from government and civil society. This resulted in high-quality presentations and interaction between the speakers and the audience.
Participants noted the importance of forums such as the ENVforum in order to create a climate of mutual understanding and to (re-)build trust between negotiating parties.
The side-event sought to:
- Fuel discussion in an open and direct manner about topics of relevance to Asia and Europe within the framework of the UNFCCC as the decision-making forum
- Provide input and food for thought to the ASEM process, especially the ASEM summit 2010 and the international climate change community
- Strengthen network between civil society, government representatives and the private sector in view of clarifying expectations from different sides
- Produce and disseminate a policy brief with recommendations from the panel discussion to the ASEM governments immediately after the event
Overall, the side-event and the related activities met all of the objectives above. The presentations were designed to meet objectives and the policy dialogue also put future opportunities into an Asia-Europe context and related to the ASEM summit in Belgium in October 2010. The feedback from panellists was highly positive with regards to the content and form of the side-event and the policy-dialogue.
The side-event was included in the official UNFCCC COP 15 programme as well as in the official booklet of the European Union during the COP15. All the documents from the meeting are uploaded and available from the UNFCCC website as well as from the Environment Forum’s website. A short report was also distributed via the Environment Forum’s newsletter. Further, the side-event was selected by the Swedish EU Presidency out of a number of side-events and was put online as a webcast on their website (www.se2009.eu).
Additionally, publications and materials about the side-event were distributed via the IGES and REC booths in the exhibition hall as well as handed out at different occasions during the COP15
The event was in the format of a 2 hour panel discussion held as a side- event at COP15. As such, providing attendees with a feedback form was not feasible.
Concrete Output:
Through the side-event and the policy briefing that followed, the ENVforum partnership has been further strengthened and consolidated for future activities, such as the ENVforum conference in Munich in 2010. All the partner and steering committee members involved in the activities in Copenhagen and Brussels re-confirmed their strong commitment to the ENVforum programme and were able to identify a number of potential joint future projects.
The Rapporteurs’ report from the side-event at COP15 was made available in form of a policy briefing and distributed to key Asian and European stakeholders including the Asian Development Bank (ADB); the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES); the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); the European Environment Agency (EEA); KEHATI – the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundtation; the Hanns
