Consultation on the draft World Energy Assessment Report

The Energy and Atmosphere Programme of the United Nation's Development Programme convened a consultation session on the draft World Energy Assessment prepared by the UNDP, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the World Energy Council.

The Report and on going consultation process will be one of the key inputs into the formal preparatory process leading up to the ninth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 2001 when energy will be a special theme. The 19th Special Session of the UN General Assembly in 1997 set out the multi-year programme on energy which will also address key linkages with atmospheric and transport issues.

The second draft World Energy Assessment (WEA) is designed to provide information and analytical background to policy makers and others so that they can better understand energy's critical relationship to sustainable development, and how energy can serve as an instrument of that goal.

In our RealAudio presentation, Jose Goldemberg, Chair of the World Energy Assessment (second speaker) and Thomas B. Johansson, UNDP, Director, Energy and Atmosphere Programme (first speaker) talk to Peter Doran about the background to their work and some of the draft conclusions.

Input to the WEA Consultation:
Comments on the draft Assessment from all stakeholders can be submitted to the UNDP up to 10 January 2000. If possible these contributions should be made by 20 November 1999. Inputs can be made electronically and submitted directly to the UNDP via e-mail (caitlin.sanchez@undp.org) or via the World Wide Web (http://www.undp.org/seed/eap/activities). Contributions can also be sent to Caitlin Allen-Sanchez, Energy and Atmosphere Programme, UNDP FF-Building, 9th Floor, 304E 45 St., New York, N.Y. 10017, USA.

Draft Report Outline:

• Part one considers the linkages between the present energy system and major global challenges, namely, economic development, social issues, the environment and security.
• Part two examines resource availability and reserves of fossil fuels, fissile materials, and renewables and considers whether they can supply enough energy to meet the world's needs through next century and beyond.
• Part three reviews technological options for sustainable energy.
• Part four synthesizes and integrates the material presented in the earlier chapters by considering the question: Do sustainable energy futures exist?
• The final part analyses policy considerations and options that could shift the present, unsustainable course to a sustainable direction.

	Left to right: Jose Goldemberg, WEA Chairman, Thomas B Johansson, Energy and Atmosphere Programme, UNDP, and Hans-Holger Rogner, Energy Resources, Germany
Kei-nang Mak, Energy and Transport Unit, DESA
	Left to right: Mak, Goldemberg and Johansson
Goldemberg outlines the draft WEA report

Adaptation Responses to Climate Change

This event was sponsored by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Climate Action Network South Asia. In his keynote presentation on the Science of Adaptation, Barry Smit, University of Guelph, Canada, explained what adaptation is and what is known about it. He also discussed the needs and opportunities for adaptation in the future. He noted that: adaptive capacity varies regionally; development decisions can fail to look at the risks associated with climate change; it is necessary to build capacity; and there is increasing knowledge regarding adaptive capacity. He said adaptation was an essential part of the climate change agenda and asked negotiators to identify their needs regarding information about adaptation.

	Barry Smit, University of Guelph
Wolfram Klein, German delegation
	Alan Miller, GEF

Getting to Work: Finance, Capacity Building and the CDM - presented by the NGO Consortium for a North-South Dialogue on Climate Change and the Foundation for Business and Sustainable Development This seminar was convened by BCAS, the Pacific Institute, WHRC, ENDA and COPPE to provoke a discussion on the enabling conditions that will encourage investment in CDM projects and promote the kinds of capacity building needed to advance the agenda of sustainability and to allow CDM projects to be successfully replicated. From left to right: Thomas Black Arbalez, Colombia, Robert Kleiburg, Shell International, Youba Sokona, ENDA, Kilaparti Ramakrishna, The Woods Hole Research Center, and John Palmisano, ENRON Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Woods Hole Research Center, and Youba Sokona, ENDA, welcomed participants. The speakers on 'Creating the Conditions that Encourage Investment' were: Thomas Black Arbalez, Colombia, John Palmisano, Enron, and Robert Kleiburg, Shell International. The speakers on 'Capacity Building and Sustainability in the CDM context' were: Ogunlade Davidson, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group lll, Luis Pinguelli Rosa, COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and Christinia Figueres, Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas. Lee Solsbery, Foundation for Business and Sustainable Development, and Atiq Rahman, Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies, closed the event.

Robert Kleiburg, Climate Change Analyst for Shell International - London, comments on the importance of industry and private-sector participation in CDM development processes

IGES book launch and seminar on Japan's responses to climate change

Japan's Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) hosted this seminar to mark the launch of a book entitled, "The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Activities Implemented Jointly Pilot: Experiences and Lessons Learned." The event was hosted by the book's editor, Robert Dixon, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the United States Department of Energy, and addressed by H.Hamanaka, Environment Agency, Japan.

The Master of Ceremonies was the Secretary-General of IGES, Masaru Moriya. Many of the 34 contributing authors who were present were honored and thanked for their work by the book's editor who met many of them for the first time at the evening seminar. Much of the preparation work was conducted in 'cyberspace' according to Mr.Dixon.

One of the book's contributors and referees, P.Hassing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, recalled some of the lessons he has learned from the AIJ pilot phase. He said the pilot phase had led, perhaps most of all, to capacity building within the Netherlands, the lead time for the transition to bankable projects had produced lessons of its own, the pilot phase had generated a positive attitude for future work, and the experience left him with a better understanding of the equity issue in developing countries.

The evening concluded with a seminar on progress in Japan in the field of climate change issues, moderated by Masaru Moriya, Secretary-General of IGES. Kazuhito Takemoto, Environment Agency, Japan, made a presentation on new law concerning the promotion of measures to cope with global warming. Masayuki Sasanouchi, Project Manager, Environmental Affairs Division, Toyota, described the automotive industry's action in response to the Kyoto Protocol.

Useful contact details:
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies: http://www.iges.or.jp/

	H. Hamanaka, Environment Agency, Japan
P. Hassing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands
	Robert Dixon, Department of Energy, USA and book editor

The IEA energy indicators effort: extension to carbon emissions as a tool of the COP This event highlighted the IEA's effort on energy and carbon emissions indicators as tools for the COP. Lee Schipper, IEA, made a presentation outlining the motivation, methodology and applications of the IEA approach. He said energy indicators are widely used in the IEA, and that domestic applications are changing. Their international application in the context of climate change is new. Left to right: Olivier Appert (e-mail: olivier.appert@iea.org) and Lee Schipper, International Energy Agency

World Bank's National Strategy Studies

Useful link: FBSD On-line CDM dialogue: http://www.foundation.no/cdm_dialogue
This web site's content is based on actual private sector CDM projects and activities. Visitors can review and critique projects and methodologies and engage in "threaded" discussions. 4Vwbblack Thomas Black Arbalez, Colombia 4Vwbpart 4Vwbparts2 Government representatives participating in the NSS meeting

Miscellaneous:

	Kimo Goree, Managing Editor, ENB, speaks with G. Sleeuwagen, Foreign Affairs, Belgium
Delegates take a coffee break in the lounge area of the Maritim Hotel

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