Environment and Energy

Capacity Development for the Clean Development Mechanism

The UNDP – UNEP Partnership on Climate Change

The Partnership broadens the existing cooperation between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on climate change issues to help countries achieve sustainable development in the face of a changing climate. The Partnership extends to all least developed and other developing countries, with a particular emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. The Partnership has two core objectives:

• To incorporate adaptation into national development plans and UN Cooperation Frameworks; and,
• To enable countries to access carbon finance and cleaner technologies in order to stimulate sustainable development.

The core capabilities of UNDP and UNEP complement each other. UNDP focuses on developing capacity and integrating policy design and implementation at the country level through its network of Country Offices. UNEP focuses on normative development, technical analysis, piloting innovative approaches at all levels, and providing science-based guidance and knowledge services.

The vision of the carbon finance element of the Partnership is to establish an integrated, multi-region Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) capacity development programme involving 25–50 least developed and developing countries. To achieve this goal, the Partnership will seek to develop regional projects involving ‘clusters’ of 5–10 countries in each of UNDP’s five regions, integrating existing UNDP and UNEP capacity development activities and extending them to address priority needs.

The regional cluster approach offers a number of advantages over traditional forms of capacity building by:

• Enabling economies of scale and more cost-effective delivery of training and technical assistance services;
• Offering the ability to tailor activities to the needs of countries in each region (especially where specific language requirements are involved), and establishing links with UNDP country programming priorities;
• Enabling, through South-South cooperation, the exchange of skills and experience between participating countries;
• Expanding the country-level experience with different types of CDM projects within the region, including possible demonstration projects to facilitate project replication in participating countries; and
• Facilitating integration of UNDP and UNEP programmes to maximize synergies and pooled expertise.