Capacity building is generally perceived as a low priority. It’s an old-school component that all Parties want (including Annex 1 Parties) and is critical to other issues such as mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and finance. Accordingly, it suffers from being everybody’s darling—and thereby ultimately no one’s. For this reason, ECO was surprised to learn that capacity building has becoming contentious within  the draft text. Developing countries have proposed a new mechanism and/or committee which can act as a focal point for capacity building under the SBI to ensure coherence and coordination with the other negotiating tracks. The rationale is similar … Continue reading Capacity Building is the New Black