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IISD and the Conference of the Parties

IISD at COP15

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) was actively engaged in the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held December 7 to 19, 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

IISD's Reporting Services mounted its most complex conference reporting in its 17-year history during COP 15. Its team of 35 experts from 19 countries provided coverage of:

• The UNFCCC negotiations on a daily basis through the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, which was made available in English, French, Spanish and Japanese.
• The UNFCCC’s official side events through ENB on the Side.
• Copenhagen Business Day (December 11).
• Development and Climate Days at COP 15 (December 11 to 14).
• Agriculture and Rural Development Day (December 12).
• Forest Day 3 (December 13).

In addition to blogs and media releases, the institute’s media and communications team provided reports from the conference through World Television's Climatetalks.tv, an online video news portal for the world's media covering COP 15.

Members of IISD’s Climate Change and Energy team also wrote commentaries before and after the conference on key issues within the negotiations.

In conjunction with these activities, IISD's program teams presented their research at a variety of parallel and side events, including:

• REDD and Development: Ensuring the integrity of greenhouse gas reductions and development benefits
  Panellists at this IISD-hosted session of Development and Climate Days discussed how an international climate agreement on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) can be structured to encourage development benefits without jeopardizing the integrity of emission reductions.

• Assessing REDD Options from a Country Perspective: Views and recommendations expressed at regional workshops with REDD negotiators and stakeholders in Africa and Asia
  During Forest Day 3, IISD's Stefan Jungcurt and Vanessa Meadu of the Alternatives to Slash and Burn Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins of the World Agroforestry Centre hosted a poster session presenting the outcomes to date of the project Building REDD Capacity in Developing Countries.

• Moving to a Low-Carbon Development Pathway
  This session, held during the final day of Development and Climate Days, explored the challenges and opportunities for developing countries in transitioning to a low-carbon development future. It examined how international initiatives such as the establishment of nationally appropriate mitigation actions, sector-based approaches to greenhouse gas reductions and REDD can contribute to this transition.

• Trade and Investment: Fostering or frustrating climate goals?
  Sessions held during this mini-symposium focused on the liberalization of trade in low-carbon goods; border carbon adjustment; investment, technology transfer and climate change; and intellectual property rights and climate change. It highlighted the outcomes to date of IISD's From Bali to Copenhagen project.

• Phasing out Fossil Fuel Subsidies: Moving from rhetoric to reform
  This event (PDF – 110 KB) focused on new opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting investment in alternative energy, and encouraging the shift to cleaner and more efficient modes of production and consumption following the September 2009 agreement by G-20 leaders to phase out subsidies to fossil fuels over the medium term. The event built upon analysis and insight gained through the work of IISD's Global Subsidies Initiative on fossil fuel subsidies.

• Addressing Clean Energy and Climate Change Action in North America: A coordinated approach
  IISD and the Pembina Institute hosted a session to explore ways of strengthening North American collaboration on clean energy and climate change. Invited representatives examined policy actions in the United States, Canada and Mexico as well as prospects for a coordinated approach to addressing climate change in North America. This event contributed to IISD's joint project with the Pembina Institute, Clean Energy and Climate Action: A North American collaborative.

• Competitiveness Impacts and Carbon Leakage: Assessing the evidence and the policy options
  Hosted by the Danish Climate Consortium, this event was undertaken in partnership with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. It highlighted the critical role that economic instruments, markets and regulatory tools will play in efforts to address climate change. These instruments and tools include free allocation of allowances, the use of unilateral trade measures at the border (border carbon adjustment) and sectoral agreements. This session (PDF – 232 KB) looked at the available instruments and assessed their challenges from the perspectives of law, administration, environmental effectiveness and development.

• International Governance of Geoengineering Research
  Reflecting the growing attention being given to geoengineering, this event reviewed the science of geoengineering, highlighting that it isn't an alternative to emission reductions; identifying research needs and possible future utilization; and exploring international governance implications. It was hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation in partnership with the Royal Society, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Climate Response Fund, Stockholm Environment Institute and IISD.

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