Espinosa underlines importance of climate technology in achieving countries’ NDC targets

The Technology Executive Committee (TEC) met in a hybrid setting from 22 to 25 March to discuss how to accelerate and scale up the development and transfer of climate technologies.

Technology is a crucial element of countries’ national climate actions plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and is key to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa underlined the importance of climate technology in achieving countries’ NDC targets:

“The Glasgow Climate Pact called upon Parties to accelerate the development, deployment and dissemination of technologies and to transition towards low-emission energy systems,“ she said at a joint session of the TEC and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) on 28 March.

“The Pact also emphasized the importance of cooperative action to accelerate and enable innovation and the importance of providing predictable, sustainable and adequate funding to the Technology Mechanism,” she added.

The TEC meeting explored the development of climate technologies for both reducing emissions – such as decarbonization technologies for sustainable transport – and adapting to climate impacts, such as coastal and ocean climate adaptation.

On the latter, the Committee endorsed the policy brief on “Innovative Approaches for Strengthening Coastal and Ocean Adaptation: Integrating Technology and Nature-based Solutions.”

Due to be launched at the next Ocean Dialogue in June 2022, the policy brief is based primarily on the outcomes of a series of Technology Day events on the topic. The event series highlighted the broad range of innovative approaches already being applied and scaled up across different countries.

Innovative adaptation technology projects

Here a couple of examples of concrete and scalable action that were discussed : The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) is a flagship initiative under the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), with a USD 1.2 billion portfolios of adaptation projects across 28 countries, including investments in technological infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions in coastal areas in several countries.

CIF finance has been used to pilot flood-resilient crop varieties in coastal areas and to establish a network of agribusinesses for enhancing the resilience of smallholder farmers.

On the southeast shoreline of Staten Island, New York, the ‘Rebuild by Design’ project is a series of offshore ‘living breakwaters’, that provide habitat for marine life while providing a buffer against wave damage, flooding and erosion.

Conceived as part of the Hurricane Sandy recovery, this initiative has been replicated internationally by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and The Rockefeller Foundation, developing the Global Partnership for Resilience based on the Rebuild by Design model and collaborative approach.

The TEC also endorsed the policy brief on linkages between the Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) and NDC processes and how these could be further strengthened to make NDCs more robust.

The TNA of Honduras, for example, focuses on addressing adaptation actions, with an emphasis on natural catastrophes, as the country has experienced several climate-related disasters.

Many of the technologies prioritised for emissions reduction can be easily integrated with solutions identified for climate adaptation, such as improved agriculture systems and enhanced water management.

The Committee is now exploring the setting up and implementation of national systems of innovations in different countries and regions to analyse ways to incentivize innovative mitigation and adaptation technologies.

Further topics discussed at the meeting include the report on technology development and transfer for next year’s important Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement and the TEC’s effort to mainstream gender into its work.

A thematic dialogue also took place, examining how to incentivize the private and public sectors in the development and transfer of technologies.

The TEC elected Ambrosio Yobánolo del Real (Chile) as Chair and Stig Svenningsen (Norway) as Vice-Chair for 2022.

The TEC’s next meeting (TEC25) is scheduled to take place on 6 – 9 September 2022.