United Nations System Collaborative Work on Climate Change

United Nations System Collaborative Work on Climate Change
A Major Priority

Climate change has been a major priority of Secretary-General Ban since the very beginning of his tenure. He brought up the matter in the first meeting of the CEB that he chaired, in April 2007. Since then CEB embarked on a major effort to align the strengths of UN system organizations to achieve a coordinated, action-oriented approach to this global and multifaceted challenge. In addition to supporting Member States more effectively in addressing the impacts of climate change, this initiative is seen as a “thematic pilot” for the UN system “delivering as one” in response to major global challenges. It also addresses the need to project a coherent and effective institutional framework that can serve the international community in a credible manner.The First Stage

The first stage of the initiative, comprising a preliminary framework for UN system activities in climate change, was presented by the Secretary-General to the Parties to UNFCCC at their 13th Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007. A subsequent report to the General Assembly for its thematic debate on climate change in February 2008 included a preliminary inventory of relevant UN system activities in the four areas identified by the Bali Action Plan, namely adaptation, mitigation, technology and finance. A large number of Member States, both developed and developing ones, responded with great interest to these announcements.The CEB Initiative

The CEB initiative has been developed further since, through the High-level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) and its Working Group on Climate Change. The CEB Climate Change Action Framework that resulted was endorsed by the CEB at its April 2008 session and was presented to the UNFCCC Parties at their 14th Conference in Poznan, Poland, in December 2008 through a publication entitled “Acting on Climate Change: The UN System Delivering as One”. The Framework includes five focus and four cross-cutting areas of collaborative UN system action, reflecting the structure of issues currently being discussed in the UNFCCC setting, with corresponding convening agencies, as well as online knowledge-sharing and public information tools (see below).UNFCCC COP15

For UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen the UN system presented a package of initiatives undertaken under its focus and cross-cutting areas:
Adaptation Learning Mechanism
Climate Finance Platform
Climate Neutral UN
Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS)
Green Economy Initiative (GEI)
One UN training Service Platform on Climate Change
Tools for UN Country Teams
UN-REDD ProgrammeCEB Climate Change Action Framework

Five focus Areas and Four Cross-Cutting Areas have been identified in response to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiation process and in pursuance of the broader mandates and capacities in the United Nations system, with corresponding convening agencies to ensure better coordination of concrete deliverables as follows:
Focus Area Convening agency
Adaptation High-level Committee on Programmes, collectively
Technology transfer UNIDO, UN-DESA
Reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) UNDP, FAO, UNEP
Financing mitigation and adaptation action UNDP, World Bank Group
Capacity-building UNDP, UNEP
Cross-cutting Area
Climate knowledge: science, assessment, monitoring and early warning WMO, UNESCO

Supporting global, regional and national action UN-DESA, UN Regional Commissions, UNDP

Climate-neutral UN UNEP

Public awareness-raising United Nations Communications Group, UNEP
Increased Synergies. Programmatic work at the headquarters level through the High-level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) is connected to United Nations system activities at the country level through the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) and the individual United Nations country teams. The United Nations regional commissions correspondingly work at the regional level, while the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change serves as the link to the global climate change negotiation process.
Online Inventory of United Nations System Activities on Climate Change developed, both as an information resource and a planning tool (accessible at http://www.un.org/climatechange/projectsearch).
Online portal, “Gateway to the UN System’s Work on Climate Change” (http://www.un.org/climatechange), which provides access to the publication entitled Acting on Climate Change: The United Nations System Delivering as One and links to individual agency climate change pages.
Knowledge Management website for use by United Nations staff, delegates and outside experts dealing with climate change, established in cooperation with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (http://www.climate-l.org).