Introduction

This book has argued thus far that climate change, development and development cooperation are closely linked (see Chapter 1). It has further argued that there are various ways in which climate change can be incorporated into the development process and that mainstreaming is the most comprehensive of these approaches. Against this background, this part focuses on the implications of the type of assistance needed by partner countries and provided by donors for the challenge of linking climate change and development cooperation.

This chapter examines the assistance that developing countries (DCs) claim to need in the climate change arena. Evidently, this specific subset must be seen in the context of the general assistance needs expressed by DCs. For example, the closing declaration of the G-77 and China at their summit in 2005 scarcely mentioned any environmental issue (apart from biodiversity) and made no reference to climate change (G-77 and China, Summit Declaration, 2005). Rather, it focused mostly on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and additional issues such as debt relief and intellectual property rights. It also highlighted that development assistance should not be accompanied by any conditionality.

Within the context of the climate change regime, the DCs are preparing National Communications (NCs), National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and Technology Needs Assessments (TNAs) for the Secretariat of the Climate Convention. From these documents, a number of climate change needs can be derived. This chapter highlights these expressed needs of DCs.