The 2023 UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which will take place from November 30 to December 12, would be decisive to advance multilateral responses to the climate crisis. IDOS will be active as an observer organisation. We will showcase our research findings at events and analyse progress made on various agenda items of the negotiations. Our key areas of focus will be climate finance, loss and damage funding arrangements and fund, just transitions, and the global goal on adaptation. IDOS experts will further engage in other climate policy fields such as health, human mobility, local communities and indigenous peoples, and non-state climate action.

Press briefing
2023 UN Climate Change Conference: How far has the world come to curb the climate crisis?
Wednesday, November 22, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm CET (online)

Events at COP28

Side Event
Climate Resilient Health Systems: delivering on the promise to leave no child behind

Date & Time: Sunday, 03 Dec 2023, 18.30 Uhr

Location: German Pavilion (COP28 Delegates only)

Organizers: Save the Children International

Speakers: Prof Dr Anna-Katharina Hornidge (IDOS), Inger Ashing (Save the Children International), Dr Youssef Nassef (UNFCCC), Prof Kristie L. Ebi (CHanGE, University of Washington), Dirk Meyer (BMZ), Dr Phonepaseuth Ounaphom (Ministry of Health, Lao PDR), Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao (Gavi-The Vaccine Alliance), Moderator: Dr Revati Phalkey (Save the Children International)

Official side event
Designing Coherent and Equitable Climate Policies for a Just Transition

Date & Time: Wednesday, 06 Dec 2023, 18:30—20:00

Location: SE Room 7, Blue Zone (COP28 Delegates only)

Partners: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), IDOS, Green Club

Description: The primary aim of the side-event is to discuss on-the-ground challenges national governments face in implementing their climate and development goals and achieving a just transition. Bringing together institutions from the Global South and the Global North, the event includes key policymakers and actors from JET-P countries to highlight mechanisms for implementing just policies, as well as civil society actors sharing the implications of a just transition on the ground. Overall, the event provides insights and examples on how interactions between climate change, sustainable development and inequality can be managed within national contexts to achieve a just transition.

Speakers: Åsa Persson (SEI), Zoha Shawoo (SEI), Alexia Faus Onbargi (IDOS), Zuzanna Borowska, (Liberian government COP28 delegation), Yun-Jeng Gina LEE (Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition), Hui-Ping Chen (Taiwan Green Energy for Charity Association), Bahareh Seyedi (UN-DESA), Innocentia Modau, WWF-South Africa , Birgit Strube (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)), Mirjam Reiner (IRENA – International Renewable Energy Agency)

Side event
Pathways for strengthening global climate finance mechanisms for drought and land degradation

Time: Sunday, 10 Dec 2023, 09:00 – 10:00

Location: Land and Drought Resilience pavilion, Blue Zone, Zone B7 (Thematic Arena Nature), Building 87, 1st floor, Stand 205 (COP28 Delegates only)

Partners: IDOS, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat, Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN)

Description: The event will explore synergies between the UNCCD and UNFCCC regimes with a focus on pathways for strengthening global finance mechanisms for drought and land degradation in the context of climate change adaptation and responses to residual loss and damage. The discussion will further seek to provide regional insights from Africa on opportunities for enhancing national governance structures for effective allocation and utilization of climate finance for tackling drought and land degradation.

Speakers: Chizuru Aoki, Lead Environmental Specialist, Global Environment Facility (GEF), Daniel Tsegai, Programme Officer, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat, Joanes Atela, Executive Director, Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), Mercy Grace Munduru, Head of Programs and Fundraising, ActionAid International Uganda, Mariya Aleksandrova, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) (Moderator)

Side event
Immobility as an overlooked aspect in the loss and damage debate

Date & Time: Sunday, 10 Dec 2023, 10:30—11:30am

Location: GCCM Climate Mobility Pavilion, Blue Zone (COP28 Delegates only)

Organizers: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)

Description: The event brings together affected communities, academics and policy makers to discuss how loss and damage relates to the needs of immobile people and how the new loss and damage fund can support such needs, with an aim to develop policy recommendations for the climate change and mobility community.

Speakers:  Andrea Jiron from Laruta del Clima, Josette Edward-Charlemagne from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, Leona Hollash from the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Nadine Biehler from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Shakirul Islam from OKUP (a grassroots migrant organization), and Susan S. Ekoh from the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). Anne Koch from SWP (Moderator)

Side event
Green Hydrogen Policymaking in Developing Countries

Time: Sunday, 10 Dec 2023, 14:00 – 15:15

Location: IRENA & GRA @ Global Renewables Hub  - Blue Zone (COP28 Delegates only)

Partners: United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and IDOS

Description: How can developing countries ensure the acquisition and equitable distribution of the benefits arising from green hydrogen? To explore the answers to this question, UNIDO, IRENA and IDOS have partnered to author the "GH2 for Sustainable Industrial Development: A Policy Toolkit for Developing Countries" report. The side event will leverage the launch of the report to discuss the specific opportunities and challenges in the ramp-up of a domestic green hydrogen market. It aims to provide strategic insights for policymakers how green hydrogen production can create domestic value and jobs, all while ensuring a just transition.

Speakers: Gunther Beger, Managing Director, Directorate for SDG Innovation and Economic Transformation, UNIDO (Opening), Ute Collier, Deputy Director, Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre, IRENA (Opening), Smeeta Fokeer, Research and Industrial Policy Officer, UNIDO (Presenter), Rita Strohmaier, Senior Researcher, IDOS (Presenter), Nadejda Komendantova, Research Group Leader, IIASA (Panel), Nancy Saich, Chief Climate Change Expert of the European Investment Bank (Panel),  Frank Wouters, Chairman MENA Hydrogen Alliance (Panel), Emanuele Bianco, Programme Officer, IRENA (Moderator).

Information about other events will follow.

Stay tuned for more updates from our delegation at COP28.

Featured latest Publications

Trade, energy & climate change mitigation

• Trade and climate change: how to design better climate-related provisions in preferential trade agreements
  Brandi, Clara / Kateryna Holzer / Jean-Frédéric Morin / Harro van Asselt / Katharina Weber (2023)
  Policy Brief 21/2023
• Germany's Energiewende: synergies, trade-offs and political drivers
  Faus Onbargi, Alexia / Ines Dombrowsky (2023)
  Policy Brief 18/2023

Climate finance

• The future of climate and development finance: balancing separate accounting with integrated policy responses
  Koch, Svea / Mariya Aleksandrova (2023)
  Policy Brief 19/2023
   
• The implementation of sustainable finance taxonomies: learning from South African experiences
  Hilbrich, Sören / Kathrin Berensmann / Giovanna Artmann / Sam Ashman / Theresa Herbold / Steffen Lötters-Viehof / Agnese Monti / Felix Paffhausen Stephanie Roigk / Lee-Ann Steenkamp (2023)
  Policy Brief 20/2023 /2023
   
• Geopolitics, the Global South and Development Policy
  Klingebiel, Stephan (2023)
  Policy Brief 14/2023

Just urban transitions

• Climate (im)mobility in urban contexts: from recognition to action
  Ekoh, Susan S. (2023)
  Policy Brief 15/2023
   
• Green jobs and the city: towards a just transition in developing countries
  Kleibrink, Alexander / Anna Pegels / Michael Fink / Wolfgang Scholz (2023)
  Policy Brief 1/2023

Health and climate change

• How can climate-resilient health systems be successfully established?
  Strupat, Christoph (2023)
  The Current Column of 27 November 2023
   
• Gesund leben auf einer gesunden Erde
  Bassen, Alexander / Jörg E. Drewes / Markus Fischer / Sabine Gabrysch / Anna-Katharina Hornidge / Karen Pittel / Hans-Otto Pörtner / Sabine Schlacke / Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann / Anke Weidenkaff (2023)
  WBGU Report June 2023

Featured research projects

• Klimalog: Climate-resilient and nature-compatible sustainable development through socially just transformation (Klimalog III)
• Implementing sustainable development goals in an incoherent world: Aligning climate action and reduced inequalities (ClimEQ)
• Social Cohesion in Displacement Contexts
• Between Crisis Management and Global Sustainability Transformation: The Role of the European Union
• How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect climate policy? Case studies on climate targets, recovery spending, and carbon fiscal reform (COVCLIM)
• Green hydrogen economy of tomorrow - (how) can developing and emerging countries benefit?
• Fostering resilience through Health and Social Protection policies in times of multiple crises