The rapid industrialization that many developing countries are facing is highlighting the question of whether this development is sustainable. During the weekend preceding the Climate Action Summit, the Envoy of the Secretary-General on Climate Action organized a high-level Summit called Industry Transition: Delivering the Paris Agreement. Its goal was to promote low-emission industrialization and provide an opportunity to present solutions that will lower the financial and social costs of transitioning to carbon neutrality.
The Envoy of the Secretary-General and Director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), Jorge Chediek explained the ways South-South cooperation is building a path to low-carbon emission industrialization of developing countries. He delivered a speech on the role of South-South cooperation in accelerating the use of technology toward achieving Agenda 2030.South-South cooperation is crucial in order to reach the sustainable development goals, as it offers diverse and practical solutions to address climate change in developing countries, and is therefore an important component in the Secretary-General’s climate change engagement strategythat has a clear and systematic framework of action plans for its implementation.
“The dynamism of the private sector is especially felt in the Global South, where active partners are sharing their experiences, with a view to achieve a more sustainable future,” said Jorge Chediek. “There are numerous examples of South-South cooperation on renewable energy, especially solar and wind energy, which is the primary input to ensure low-emission industrialization.”
“Technology and finance are at the heart of transitioning to low emission industrialization,” said Ajay Mathur, the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), who was moderating the session.
Moving forward, UNOSSC announced that it is preparing a publication on practices on bioeconomy solutions, generated by and applicable in the Southern developing countries, in order to learn from and better equip the Global South to address climate change. This will be launched at the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) in December 2019.
With the arrival of the Climate Action Summit 2019, it is now time for the global community to move from ambition to action. UNOSSC stands ready to engage with all partners to ensure that South-South and triangular partnerships, including technology transfer and diffusion towards a low-emission industrialization, are supported and scaled-up towards building the future we want for all.
