Preparatory InWEnt-Workshop

supported by the

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

December 15-16, 2008 in Berlin

Background

Fossil fuels act as one of the main causes of climate change, thereby making current global trends in energy supply and consumption unsustainable. In the coming years, future limita-tions of oil and gas supplies will threaten the energy security and economic growth of many countries. Against this backdrop, the concept of a low carbon economy (LCE) has gained in-creasing prominence since it aims to address different political key priorities: climate protec-tion, energy security as well as economic and social development. As a result, the situation calls for a long-term conversion process that allows the global economy to shift towards lower emissions. Apart from the energy sector, economic development as well as greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), urban energy consumption, land use and forest protection have received increasing attention. Therefore, developing joint strategies that help countries move toward a LCE are needed.

Workshop Concept

A two-day workshop in Berlin, Germany took place on the 15 and 16 December 2008, which served as a kick-off for a long-term dialogue process. InWEnt and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany intended for the dialogues to progress for the next three years in order to address the specific challenges of accomplishing a LCE. They also encourage the partners to share mutual experiences in order to learn from each other. The process places particular emphasis in creating space for discussions among decision makers and experts from Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa. Aside from Germany as the host of the event, this setting acknowledges the crucial importance that these countries play regarding climate change issues. On the one hand, they may experience high increases in their GHG emissions in the decades to come and are in some cases highly vulnerable to climate change. On the other hand, they show particularly high potential for climate change solutions in their countries and beyond. The dia-logue process will help build a common understanding on policies and measures for a LCE as an essential part of a sustainable development and to facilitate the development of joint strategies to address the problems of climate change, energy security and development.

The dialogue aims not only to accelerate the implementation of relevant technological and regulatory solutions, but may also inspire, facilitate and complement the "position driven" in-ternational climate negotiation process. During the preparatory workshop, representatives from the partner countries discussed possible key aspects of a LCE and potential priorities for the envisaged dialogue process. The workshop was structured into three parts: (i) a discus-sion on the concept of LCE; (ii) three working group sessions, focusing on the areas of energy supply, urban energy consumption and land use / forest protection; and (iii) the possible priori-ties of the partner countries for the first upcoming dialogue forum in Spring 2009.