A Proposal for a Consultative Group for Low Emissions Development

Interest in low emissions development is growing in many parts of the world for both climate and nonclimate reasons. Yet in order to pursue low emissions development, gaps in knowledge and implementation capacity must first be identified and and then filled through peer-to-peer learning and applied research. Governments, multilateral development banks, and nongovernmental organizations are responding to country-led efforts to implement low emissions development policies through an array of country-specific programs and projects. Most of these international programs operate independently, with collaboration among implementing agencies occurring on the margins at the national or local level. While these initial efforts are laudable and have yielded valuable knowledge and progress, the opportunity is ripe to leverage these activities for greater impact. Greater global cooperation through semiformal coordinating mechanisms could ensure greater coverage of low emissions development activities, enhance the scale and predictability of funds, and improve the ease with which countries engage in peer-to-peer exchanges. We propose that a new Consultative Group on Low Emissions Development (CGLED) could serve as this coordinating mechanism.