Low-carbon development strategies: “readiness” varies amongst countries
Low-carbon development strategies have attracted interest in the climate negotiations as a soft alternative to voluntary or obligatory national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets - especially for developing countries. Several countries have embarked on drafting an LCDS. A recent Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) study explores two questions related to LCDS. First, what are the prerequisites for developing an effective LCDS, and what can a country do if these are not fully met in practice?
The analysis finds that the ideal circumstances for starting the development of an LCDS are rarely met in practice, and there are substantial differences in the “readiness” among countries to develop an LCDS. Countries that are not very advanced in terms of low-carbon development planning, can effectively start the process of developing an LCDS at any time, as the process itself can be used to build the fact base, technical and institutional capacity to interpret the facts and awareness and buy-in among decision makers and stakeholders.
In the context of preparing a low-carbon development strategy, readiness relates to strengths and weaknesses in three categories: the fact base, analytical and institutional capacity, and the awareness and engagement of all relevant stakeholders. Differences in readiness, and in the process of strategy development, will determine which outcomes can realistically be achieved.
Because the national context and the readiness to develop an LCDS differ greatly across countries, a detailed prescription of LCDS as international climate policy instrument (the contents, methods and tools) may be impossible and counterproductive, and would not do justice to this variation across countries. A standardised methodology for developing an LCDS, or restrictions on the timing of its preparation process, may be ineffective, and rather than specifying a target or producing a document, an LCDS should facilitate or provide a process that, depending on the developing country’s readiness, meets needs to develop and to fill capacity, knowledge and information gaps.
Support for developing an LCDS could focus on individual building blocks or on the process. Technical assistance needs to support a process that has its own pace, and should allow for flexibility and tailoring to the national context and the specific expectations about the LCDS process. This is essential for making an LCDS effective in contributing to sustainable (low-carbon) development, rather than producing a “paper tiger”.
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