New Research for Effective Action at Paris and Beyond

The Global Climate Policy Conference (GCPC) 2015, “New Research for Effective Action at Paris and Beyond: Strengthening the Research-Policy Interface in International Climate Negotiations,” was co-organized by the Stanley Center and Climate Strategies (with support from the Oak Foundation) on April 30–May 1, 2015, in New Delhi, India.

The conference provided a platform for innovative research and ideas to explore ways to advance climate action, bringing together climate-policy researchers and practitioners from around the world, and a better understanding of how research can contribute to improved climate policymaking.

Key messages from the conference presentations and discussions include:

• As a way to ensure climate justice, the notion of development pathways needs to be fully thought through.
• To enhance climate finance, more innovative approaches such as public-private partnerships, debt-for-climate swaps, and microfinance require further exploration.
• The policy community should identify new ways to better hold states accountable for their climate pledges.
• Clubs have potential to enhance climate action through accelerated innovation among a key set of players, yet the uncertainty of its feasibility, effectiveness, and process seemed to warrant deeper analysis and investigation.
• Within adaptation, more transformative goals and the need for developing a generalizable understanding of adaptation processes from the large range of ongoing projects was highlighted for defining success in both the short-and long-term.
• Exploration of new approaches in loss and damage research such as probabilistic event attribution and legal avenues may be key to formulating climate policy.
• Central to low-carbon technology deployment is the importance of building suitable local capacity as a way to enhance action on the ground in developing countries.

The conference discussions indicated the value of the research and analysis presented to better understand the key issues pertaining to progress on various dimensions of climate policy and action, and to the development of innovative approaches to help move humanity toward solutions pathways for a safe climate world.

GCPC 2015 consisted of research and policy experts. Sessions 1 through 4 featured experts who were selected through an open and competitive process and presented on how to advance action on key issues in the climate arena. Out of approximately forty submissions from the research community, the conference organizers selected eight abstracts grouped into four themes:

Session 1 – Climate and development
Session 2 – Adaptation
Session 3 – Public-private partnerships
Session 4 – Motivating and enhancing state action

The full version of the papers presented in these sessions are available at Conference Proceedings (pdf).

Conference sessions designed to progress thinking in clearly predefined areas:

Session 5 (Track 1) – Investment, carbon pricing, and technology
Session 5 (Track 2) – Adaptation and loss and damage
Session 6 – Capacity building panel discussion
Session 7 – Implementation challenges for Paris and beyond panel discussion

This report includes summaries of the presentations and participant discussions as captured by the rapporteurs as well as the conference chair’s summary and cochairs’ reflections on the parallel tracks.