Japan's Official Development Assistance White Paper 2008
Next PageMain Text > Part I Climate Change and Development > Chapter 2 Promotion of the Cool Earth Partnership > Section 1. Measures against Climate Change by Developing Countries
A characteristic of climate change countermeasures is that they cannot be addressed by a single country and require global-scale approaches. To take climate change countermeasures at such a level, individual countries must take international as well as domestic actions. Promoting climate change countermeasures is critical for developing countries in particular, as their rapid economic growth is expected to boost greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
As global warming goes on, climate change issues pose a new, major challenge for mankind. If we remain inactive, we may face a catastrophe that would engulf both the natural environment and socio-economic activities. Particularly in many developing countries, their possibility of facing negative impacts of climate change in the near future is increasing, for they are not able to cope with current climate conditions sufficiently.
In developing countries in particular, climate change and development are closely related and cannot be approached separately. The Human Development Report 2007/2008 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warned that climate change was hampering efforts to deliver on the promises of the Millennium Development Goals. According to the report, climate change stalls and reverses progress made in the eradication of extreme poverty, promotion of health, nutrition, and education, and work in other areas of human development.
An effective approach to climate change requires the organization of social and economic factors, including infrastructure, technology, information, financial resources, and management capabilities. Developing countries tend to lack these assets, and this situation results in delayed measures against climate change.
To avoid such adverse impacts, short-term, and fast-acting measures must be advanced through further enhancement of support in various areas that would suffer due to the impacts of climate change like water resources, forest conservation, agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, and disaster countermeasures. In addition, mid- to long-term initiatives to strengthen social resilience are also necessary. Such initiatives should be based on the perspective of adaptation in developing countries through development policies carried out by themselves.
Some people identify climate change and development as separate issues. They regard climate change as a new problem which has arisen in addition to existing development themes such as poverty reduction. Based on this perspective, they argue that funding for climate change should not be diverted from that for poverty reduction. However, we cannot fundamentally separate climate change from development. No development project disregarding climate change issues can reach positive results. And vice versa, we need approaches based on a national-level perspective to advance climate change countermeasures.
Greenhouse gases are not only emitted by developed countries. Today, about half of all GHG emissions come from developing countries that are not obliged to reduce GHG emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Developing countries, too, need to work on cutting their own GHG emissions.
On the other hand, developing countries often face shortages of expertise and funding to promote emissions reductions on their own, therefore they require active support from developed countries to advance reduction initiatives. Since greenhouse gases have various sources of emission and absorption, they require a comprehensive set of measures that include approaches targeting both GHG reductions and preventing environmental pollution (co-benefit approaches), while covering various fields such as energy, transportation and forest conservation.
Some developing countries are wary of addressing climate change issues as they believe that economic growth can be hampered by cutting GHG emissions. On the contrary, however, the reality is that negative impacts on economic growth and development can be minimized by launching countermeasures for climate change at an early stage and continuing for a long period, which in the long run could cause grave impacts on the global economy.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a scheme introduced under the Kyoto Protocol that helps developing countries address global warming. While developed countries are given goals for reducing their GHG emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, the CDM has these countries contribute to the sustainable development of developing countries, as developing and developed countries work together on projects that contribute to cuts and absorption of GHG emissions in developing countries. By joining in these efforts, developed countries are eligible to receive credit (cap) that represents the amount of reduction/absorption achieved through the country's commitment. The CDM affords developing countries additional investment for development in energy and other sectors. Japan, which has the potential to gain credit under the CDM, intends to promote support for developing countries to advance the CDM and actively register its ODA projects in the CDM. At the same time, Japan will use the co-benefit approach as a base to promote anti-pollution measures in developing countries.
However, the current CDM is seen to have a tendency to allow more funds to flow into those countries that have already achieved certain levels of economic development and that have greater potential to reduce emissions. This issue should be reviewed in order to ensure unbiased distribution of funds to its member countries without regional gaps. The CDM must also provide incentives to advance developing countries' efforts for reducing emissions.