Climate Compatible Development: Pathway or Pipedream?

On 16 January, I was honoured to give the Anniversary Lecture at the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The topic was 'Climate Compatible Development: Pathway or Pipedream'. The full text of the lecture can be downloaded from the CPD website, here. There is a video, here.  Press reports are here. And tv coverage is here.

Summary

The lecture addresses the challenges posed by ‘climate compatible development’. Is there a clear pathway to ‘zero-zero’ – eradicating poverty and simultaneously saving the planet? Or are the trade-offs and competing interests such that this is a pipedream?

The adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris agreement on climate change together pose a transformational challenge. This is so despite the fact that the concrete mitigation commitments made by countries in Paris amount to only about a quarter of those needed by 2030. In the longer-term, much more radical cuts will be needed, leading to complete elimination of CO2 by 2070, and of other greenhouse gases well before the end of the century.

Climate compatible development offers a framework for thinking about the pathway for dealing with changes on this scale, while simultaneously achieving the poverty reduction and other targets embedded in the SDGs. Climate Compatible Development emphasises mitigation and adaptation within countries, but also the impact on individual countries of transformation in the wider global economy. In this context, innovation becomes a key concept, and competitiveness an essential tool.

Theoretical pathways to zero-zero are well-established, and appear particularly attractive when co-benefits like improved air quality or lower congestion are taken into account. However, the transition pathway is not friction-free. Three elements need to be assembled: policy leadership; policy design; and policy implementation.

The many issues raised by climate compatible development are familiar to development studies. Future work on climate and development must be informed by the lessons of past development research and policy-making; and must build on the values held by those working in the field.