Introduction

This chapter examines the supply of assistance to developing countries (DCs) on the basis of an examination of Country Strategy Papers (CSPs; see Section 6.3.3). These papers are compiled in cooperation between partner countries and the European Commission and draw, where available, on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) prepared for the World Bank and IMF. The assumption behind such papers is that building on ‘national ownership’ of ideas for development assistance is likely to enhance the effectiveness of aid (see Chapter 2).

More recently, as climate change has become an issue of higher priority and the links between development and climate change have become more obvious, international organizations have started to recognize the need to mainstream climate change into these documents (see Chapters 3 and 4; Table 3.2). UNEP–UNDP (2007) explicitly see the PRSPs as an instrument for linking poverty and environmental issues (see Section 3.3.2), and argue that such reports could be seen as effective entry points for international assistance.

Against this background, this chapter seeks to ask to what extent the supply of development aid addresses the needs for climate assistance. In comparing the supply with the needs, it reflects back on the demand for climate assistance as identified in Chapter 8. The current chapter reviews the CSPs agreed between the European Commission and the 10 case-study countries (see Section 8.2).

Introduction

This chapter investigates the extent to which the European Union (EU) has incorporated climate change into its development cooperation policy. It describes the EU's development cooperation policy, its evolution and its main principles (see Section 6.2), and focuses on the process of delivering aid (see Section 6.2.5). Subsequently, this chapter explains how the policy areas of climate change and development cooperation have become linked over time (see Section 6.3), elaborates on how current EU policy incorporates climate change into development cooperation (see Section 6.3.2), and outlines the policy tools that are employed to incorporate environmental issues in general, and climate change in particular, into development cooperation programming (see Section 6.3.3). Finally, it assesses the current status of climate incorporation in EU development cooperation (see Section 6.4), and draws conclusions (see Section 6.5).

The EU and its development cooperation policy

The evolution of EU development cooperation policy

The EU, represented by the European Commission, is a unique actor in development cooperation. It is both a bilateral donor (providing direct support to developing countries (DCs)), and a multilateral organization with a coordinating role for the development aid policies of its 27 Member States (see also Chapters 2, 4 and 7).

Introduction

This book has argued thus far that climate change, development and development cooperation are closely linked (see Chapter 1). It has further argued that there are various ways in which climate change can be incorporated into the development process and that mainstreaming is the most comprehensive of these approaches. Against this background, this part focuses on the implications of the type of assistance needed by partner countries and provided by donors for the challenge of linking climate change and development cooperation.

This chapter examines the assistance that developing countries (DCs) claim to need in the climate change arena. Evidently, this specific subset must be seen in the context of the general assistance needs expressed by DCs. For example, the closing declaration of the G-77 and China at their summit in 2005 scarcely mentioned any environmental issue (apart from biodiversity) and made no reference to climate change (G-77 and China, Summit Declaration, 2005). Rather, it focused mostly on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and additional issues such as debt relief and intellectual property rights. It also highlighted that development assistance should not be accompanied by any conditionality.

Within the context of the climate change regime, the DCs are preparing National Communications (NCs), National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and Technology Needs Assessments (TNAs) for the Secretariat of the Climate Convention. From these documents, a number of climate change needs can be derived. This chapter highlights these expressed needs of DCs.

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the evolution of North–South or rich–poor development and development cooperation issues within global developmental and environmental governance. It explores the policy development within the UN, development banks and the trade bodies (see Section 4.2), and the OECD (see Section 4.3), culminating in the current discussions on ‘mainstreaming’ climate change into their policy processes. It identifies three critical aspects of the North–South discussion. First, it focuses on the right to development that the developing countries (DCs) have tabled since the 1960s. It shows that, despite some progress having been made, the industrialized countries (ICs) are sceptical about this right. Second, it looks at the quantitative commitment to development assistance that has continuously been on the political agenda since the 1960s. Even though the ICs continue to reiterate the quantitative target, they are unable to implement it. Third, it examines the controversial discussion on ‘new and additional’ resources in the context of the environmental debate (see Section 4.4).

This chapter then reflects on global governance regarding sustainable-development issues (see Section 4.5). It argues that governance on development and environmental issues, or sustainable-development governance, is diffuse and spread throughout the UN and OECD systems. It submits that there is increasing convergence in policy rhetoric amongst the various bodies in that they have adopted the concept of sustainable development and the ‘mainstreaming’ jargon, but there is considerable divergence in the ways in which they interpret these terms.

Introduction

Climate change, development and development cooperation are three complex issues. The political arenas that deal with these issues partially overlap but are not integrated. In recent years, however, there has been a growing trend towards incorporating climate change concerns into the fields of development and development cooperation. Evidently, this is a challenging process. The nature of the challenge is three-fold. Theoretically, the links among the three issues are vast and cover practically all human activities and endeavours. Politically, the nature of North–South relations in all three fields is highly sensitive. Practically, there are limited resources available for global cooperation and it makes sense to use these resources wisely to improve the results for all three fields. But does this practical argument compensate adequately for the other challenges?

This book tackles these issues by combining theoretical, political and practical perspectives. While it focuses on the relationship between climate change and development cooperation, this is undertaken against the broader background of the fundamental links between climate change and development. This book is part of the research project ‘Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies (ADAM): supporting European climate policy’, the aims of which are to assess the extent to which EU mitigation and adaptation policies can achieve a transition to a world in which the global mean temperature does not rise beyond 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, and to develop strategic policy options to help the EU achieve these goals.

Introduction

Following the discussion of the global context for development and development cooperation, this chapter focuses on cooperation within the climate change context. It addresses the key issues of international climate change cooperation between rich and poor countries. To this end, it first explains the major elements of consensus in the Climate Convention in terms of principles and commitments (see Section 5.2). It then examines the evolving nature of the climate change deal between industrialized countries (ICs) and developing countries (DCs) and explains why many DCs have difficulties with this process (see Section 5.3). It then examines the resources needed in the regime, with a particular focus on the needs of DCs, compares those with what is available, and discusses the principles on sharing resources and the need for ideas to generate additional funding. It also looks at the relationship between the mechanisms (see Section 5.4) and at the key market mechanisms both for technology transfer and for generating adaptation resources (see Section 5.5), before drawing conclusions (see Section 5.6).

Principles and mechanisms: the consensus of 1992

Introduction

Climate change is intrinsically a North–South issue (see Section 1.2.3). This section explains the consensus on the division of responsibilities between ICs and DCs that underlies the climate regime. It argues that the climate regime was developed according to a leadership paradigm, which substituted for the liability and ‘polluter pays’ principles, and was initially accepted by the DCs in the constructive spirit in which it was offered.

Introduction

There is increasing pressure in the policy world to mainstream climate change into development and development cooperation (see Section 1.6). Mainstreaming is a concept that brings marginal, sectoral, issues into the centre of discussions, thereby attracting more political attention, economic resources and intellectual capacities. The term ‘mainstreaming’ is often used loosely in climate discussions to mean a range of ideas that are referred to here as ‘incorporation’. It is also often used interchangeably with integration. However, this chapter argues that it is preferable to give a more specific meaning to the concept of mainstreaming and to make a clear distinction between mainstreaming and integration.

This chapter discusses the policy evolution of, and the driving factors behind, mainstreaming discussions to set the stage for the theoretical analysis (see Section 3.2). It examines what mainstreaming climate change means for development and development cooperation (see Section 3.3). It operationalizes the different elements of such processes (see Section 3.4) before drawing conclusions (see Section 3.5).

This chapter argues, first, that the policy attention to mainstreaming climate change into development and development cooperation arises out of the diverse motivations of the various actors. Second, the current discussions on climate-change mainstreaming follow mainstreaming discussions in other fields (e.g. gender) and its proponents should learn from and link up, where relevant, with them. Third, mainstreaming is the last step in the stages of incorporating climate change into policy processes.

Introduction

Since this book is about development, sustainable development and development cooperation, this chapter examines these complex issues and their interlinkages. While some see development as measurable by gross national product (GNP), others argue that development is much more complex. Whereas sustainable development has been embraced by the scientific community (e.g. the IPCC), the political community (e.g. the Climate Convention and the Rio Declaration of 1992) and the private sector (e.g. as part of corporate social responsibility), its content is often not clear. Although development cooperation appears to be entrenched in the psyche of countries and in international law (Cárdenas et al., 1995), others focus on aid fatigue and call for its ending (Ruyter, 2005).

This chapter examines how the development literature has evolved over time, the evolution of the sustainable-development literature and why most DCs are still developing after 50 years of theory and practice (see Section 2.2). It examines the evolution of the development cooperation literature, the motives for providing assistance, the debate on the effectiveness of aid, the modalities of aid and the problems with aid (see Section 2.3). Finally, it makes recommendations (see Section 2.4) and draws conclusions (see Section 2.5).

Development theory

Introduction

This section discusses the evolution of development theory, the evolution of sustainable development and why popular images about how countries should develop are fading in the light of the reality.

Item a – Allowance allocations, verified emissions and net positions by member states

Item b – Allowance allocations, verified emissions and net positions by sector

Item c – Carbon and energy prices, 2005–8

Item d – EUA trading: transaction volumes by platform, 2005–8

Item e – Origin and destinations of surrendered allowances over the first