TECHNOLOGY BAZAAR TO SHOWCASE
CLIMATE FRIENDLY
TECHNOLOGIES
FROM TWELVE COUNTRIES
Backgrounder
About 100 Exhibitors
from twelve countries will showcase state of the art climate friendly
technologies at the Climate Technology Bazaar to be held in New
Delhi from November 10-13, 2003. A series of Conferences relating
to clean technology will also be held to coincide with the event.
This is an Indian initiative to global response to combat climate
change and a gateway for investors and recipients for clinching
collaborative projects as well as a platform for promoting transfer
of clean technologies. The bazaar being held in association with
the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) is one of the largest
global events in the calendar for climate friendly technologies
and reduction of green house gases.
The global community
is addressing the challenge of climate change through a multi-lateral
and cooperative approach. The Government of India demonstrated
its commitment to address climate change by acceding to the Kyoto
Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) in August, 2002. India successfully hosted the
8th Conference of Parties (COP-8) in New Delhi from
October 23 to November 1, 2002. The Delhi Ministerial Declaration,
adopted at COP-8, provides a new direction to climate change issues
and firmly places climate change in the context of sustainable
development. The Conference also succeeded in the operataionalisation
of the Clean Development Mechanism and brought technology transfer
and adaptation into focus. The series of events planned now will
further the elements of the Delhi Ministerial Declaration.
The Climate Technology
Bazaar would encourage manufacturing and industrial operations
to use such technologies that minimize green house gases emissions
and thereby reduce their environmental "footprint".
There would also be a Carbon Bazaar where companies and countries
interested in trade in emission reduction and green house gases
reduction projects would find a meeting point to working together.
Some of the major
areas which will be prominently covered in the Exhibition are:
· Energy efficiency
(especially in energy intensive industrial sectors such as steel,
cement, smelting etc.)
· Renewable energy
(solar, wind, biomass etc.)
· Climate-friendly
manufacturing processes and technologies
· Carbon sequestration
technologies
· Technologies for
Waste-to-Energy
Several conferences
are being held concurrently and organized by institutions such
as UNEP, UNFCCC, CII, TERI.
There will also be
an International Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Roundtable
on November 10, 2003. This Roundtable would allow senior representatives
of Business, Government and NGOs to interact with representatives
of the CDM Executive Board.
The United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is organizing
a meeting of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer (EGTT) on
November 11 – 12, 2003. The Group consists of 20 members drawn
from developed and developing countries. This year’s Work Programme
of the Group covers technology needs assessment, technology information,
enabling environment, capacity building mechanisms and cross-cutting
issues.
A Workshop on Development
and Climate has been planned for November 11, 2003. Shri Baalu
said the conventional view has been to consider Climate change
as a barrier to development and development as a threat to climate
change. The development and climate paradigm views development
as the driving force for addressing climate changes, the key to
overcoming its vulnerability and enhancing capabilities for adaptation
to its adverse impacts, he said.
Concurrently, the
United Nations Environment Programme is organizing a workshop
on November 10-11, 2003 to identify research needs and produce
a thoughtful plan for further research collaboration and applications
relating to adaptation. The expected output of this workshop includes
methodology for identification of vulnerable hot spots, designing
a procedure to evaluate impact on hot spots highly vulnerable
to adverse impacts of climate change, adaptation designs and strategies
to tackle multiple stresses, capacity building for tackling climate
adaptation and developing a pathway for international negotiations
on adaptation policies.
Back to back with
the UNEP workshop, the UNFCCC is organizing a workshop on Adaptation
on November 12-13, 2003. The objective of this workshop is to
promote an exchange of information on existing indigenous technologies
and local coping strategies currently in use for climate-change
related impacts and to brainstorm on how current methodological
approaches to adaptation can be expanded to effectively accommodate
such community-level coping strategies to address extreme events
like drought, floods and tropical storms. Presenters and resource
persons will include experts with field experience in anticipatory
and reactive coping strategies for drought, floods and tropical
storms.
The Technology Bazaar
and the conferences on Adaptation, Technology Transfer and CDM
are inter-related. These are bound to generate a lot of interest
amongst stakeholders both in the developed and developing countries
and will provide a common platform for furtherance of the multilateral
process as envisioned under the convention and its Protocol with
emphasis on developing countries’ concerns like technology transfer,
vulnerability and adaptation. The Exhibition and the Conferences
would also offer an excellent networking opportunity with the
delegates from various countries, providing a fillip to business
development and expansion plans.
