Developing nations are starting to seek green technologies through a UN system meant as a building block for a global deal on climate change next month with projects including solar power in Mali or energy from cow manure in Ecuador.
To help unlock a UN deal to slow global warming at a 30 November-11 December summit in Paris, many developing nations want guarantees that rich countries will provide more technology, along with far more finance.
Kunihiko Shimada, chair of the UN Technology Executive Committee which guides policy said that technology will “play a key role in the implementation of the 2015 agreement” due in Paris.
Up from 22 a year ago, the UN Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) 57 requests for help. CTCN has been giving free advice and assistance since it started in 2014.
One such request that is pending with the CTCN is from Ecuador that asked for an anaerobic digester which can turn cow manure into biogas to reduce greenhouse gases in the western Santo Domingo region. Cows are a big sources of methane, a greenhouse gas a couple of months ago.
Noting similar plants were in the Mojave desert in the United States and in southern Spain, Mali, in October, asked for help to build a 3 megawatt solar power plant using mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays. “This technology is mature,” it said citing the US and Spain projects.
An early warning system in the Dominican Republic to give alerts about storms and other disasters and an Iranian plan to build a desalination plant for sea water, partly to help offset reduced rainfall are some of the other requests that were received by CTCN.
“It’s an important signal before Paris that countries are applying for support: it’s both symbolic and builds trust,” said Shane Tomlinson, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank.
Apart from examining the requests that they receive from various countries, the CTCV experts also help contacts the countries with contacts with funding agencies and companies. Most requests are at preliminary stages. None have yet been completed.
While the investment needs were likely to be hundreds of billions of dollars a year, the UN technology mechanism was seeking tighter links with banks and other sources of finance, such as the UN’s Green Climate Fund, Shimada said.
Guarantees of new technology were vital to convince developing nations that they would benefit from a Paris accord, said Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute think-tank.
“It will build developing nations’ confidence to do more” to combat climate change at home, she said.
(Source:www.livemint.com & www.reuters.com)
To help unlock a UN deal to slow global warming at a 30 November-11 December summit in Paris, many developing nations want guarantees that rich countries will provide more technology, along with far more finance.
Kunihiko Shimada, chair of the UN Technology Executive Committee which guides policy said that technology will “play a key role in the implementation of the 2015 agreement” due in Paris.
Up from 22 a year ago, the UN Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) 57 requests for help. CTCN has been giving free advice and assistance since it started in 2014.
One such request that is pending with the CTCN is from Ecuador that asked for an anaerobic digester which can turn cow manure into biogas to reduce greenhouse gases in the western Santo Domingo region. Cows are a big sources of methane, a greenhouse gas a couple of months ago.
Noting similar plants were in the Mojave desert in the United States and in southern Spain, Mali, in October, asked for help to build a 3 megawatt solar power plant using mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays. “This technology is mature,” it said citing the US and Spain projects.
An early warning system in the Dominican Republic to give alerts about storms and other disasters and an Iranian plan to build a desalination plant for sea water, partly to help offset reduced rainfall are some of the other requests that were received by CTCN.
“It’s an important signal before Paris that countries are applying for support: it’s both symbolic and builds trust,” said Shane Tomlinson, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank.
Apart from examining the requests that they receive from various countries, the CTCV experts also help contacts the countries with contacts with funding agencies and companies. Most requests are at preliminary stages. None have yet been completed.
While the investment needs were likely to be hundreds of billions of dollars a year, the UN technology mechanism was seeking tighter links with banks and other sources of finance, such as the UN’s Green Climate Fund, Shimada said.
Guarantees of new technology were vital to convince developing nations that they would benefit from a Paris accord, said Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute think-tank.
“It will build developing nations’ confidence to do more” to combat climate change at home, she said.
(Source:www.livemint.com & www.reuters.com)
