DDPP Presents at COP20 in Lima

On December 10, the SDSN along with partners World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), International Energy Agency (IEA) and French Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), organized a side-event on its Low-Carbon Technology Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) initiative. George Safonov from HSE made one of the key presentations at this event.

The SDSN and the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) participated in two key side-events at COP20 in Lima. On December 10, the SDSN along with partners World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), International Energy Agency (IEA) and French Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), organized a side-event on its Low-Carbon Technology Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) initiative.

The four partners of the initiative, joined by Laurence Tubiana, France Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative of the French Government for COP21, launched the initiative to an audience of COP20 delegates, observers and the press. The initiative was also discussed during the Energy Day co-organized by the IEA, WBCSD and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with representatives from Shell (David Hone), Siemens (Jens Dinkel) the US delegation (Griffin Thompson), and the SDSN (Emmanuel Guerin). The initiative was also showcased by Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and Chairman of WBCSD, at the Caring for Climate Business Forum on December 9; and discussed during a private meeting with the French Foreign Minister and incoming COP21 President, Laurent Fabius, who endorsed it as a flagship initiative of the Solutions Agenda for COP21.

On December 12, the DDPP organized a side-event to present the project objective, method and results to country delegations and to further discuss options to include the concept of DDPs in the COP21 Paris agreement. DDPP team members from Brazil (Emilio la Rovere), Russia (George Safonov), South Africa (Hilton Trollip), SDSN (Emmanuel Guerin), as well as Laurence Tubiana (French Ambassador for Climate Change) and IDDRI (Teresa Ribera), presented at the event.

The COP20 outcome draft negotiating text for Paris includes several references to the importance of national long-term emissions reduction pathways consistent with the 2°C global carbon budget. The concept that countries would have to produce a long-term deep decarbonization pathway (a “long-term net-zero emissions sustainable development pathway” in the text) between 2015 and 2020, which was absent from the negotiations just a few months ago, is now one of the possible organizing principles of the whole mitigation section of the draft negotiating text, which is a promising step forward and a very clear sign of DDPP’s impact.