Prof Sivanappan Kumar of the School of Environment, Energy and
Resources (SERD) of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has been
featured in the special 'COP' edition newsletter of the Technology
Needs Assessment (TNA) program.
TNA is a capacity building project to enable participating countries
to identify their technology needs for mitigation and adaption, and the
UNEP Risoe Centre (URC), Denmark has engaged the Centre of Excellence
for Sustainable Development in the context of Climate Change (SDCC),
AIT, for implementing TNA in developing Asian countries.
In an interview with Prof. Kumar, the Newsletter poses questions on
the "best advice to countries struggling to engage a broad range of
stakeholders in the TNA project," the manner in which AIT has tailored
its support to fit the diversity of Asian countries involved in the TNA
project, and life after TNA's.
In the editorial of the Ms. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary,
UNFCCC states that the Technology Mission is set to be fully
operational in 2012 and will consist of two arms -- the Technology
Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network
(CTCN).
The interview of Prof. Kumar is reproduced here, while the entire
Newsletter can be read at this link.
Question: What would be your best advice to countries struggling to
engage a broad range of stakeholders in the TNA project?
Answer: The identification of stakeholders is fairly straightforward
for the mitigation sector, as the areas are clearly specified and
categorised. On the other hand, the areas of the adaptation sector are
wider, and are also country specific. This makes the specific
identification of stakeholders in the adaptation sector challenging,
and the stakeholders' engagement process more difficult. The project
leaders in the countries could identify those groups who would be
impacted and who could contribute to the decision making process. The
countrie's experience with NAPAs would also be useful. Furthermore, the
institutional structure of the TNA project which includes sector based
groups, experts, national TNA committee and the steering committee is
fundamentally aimed to engage various stakeholders in a constructive
manner.
Question: Do you think there are any challenges unique to Asian
countries in terms of implementing their Technology Action Plans?
Answer: The level of development in the participating Asian countries
is varied. The 1st round countries are now in the process of developing
their Technology Action Plans (TAP). Considering the robust methodology
and involvement of stakeholders at various stages of this project, and
the fact that this is a country driven process, implementing the TAPs
should be a natural follow up. The implementation of the TAP will,
however, depend on the political commitment, and in this sense, the
challenges of how to balance economic growth and social development
with climate change mitigation and adaptation, are probably the same in
Asia as they are elsewhere. Incorporating stakeholder input with the
political decision making process is another challenge. Here, the
differences between countries are in terms of institutional and human
capacity, commitment and allocation of resources.
Question: How does AIT tailor its support to fit the diversity of
Asian countries involved in the TNA project?
Answer: AIT is assisting the following countries in Asia – Indonesia,
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos PDR, Thailand, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Bhutan, Azherbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Moldova. The role of AIT
in supporting such a diversity of countries participating in the TNA
project is by providing assistance through generic guidelines, and
country specific guidelines. For the broad range of expertise required
in adaptation and mitigation areas, AIT has involved its faculty and
researchers from various disciplines as members of the TNA project. In
addition to capacity building activities, and reviewing the TNA and the
TAP reports, AIT has simplified the TNA process for easy use by
countries, developed frequently asked questions (FAQs) and technology
fact sheets (TFS), provided inputs by participating in country
meetings, and developed templates for country reports on subsector and
technology prioritisation. The AIT team members have provided their
responses and inputs for questions from country experts and national
teams, which have been mainly on technology prioritisation issues and
the use of multi criteria decision analysis/tool. Details of all
support provided by AIT is available in the AIT's TNA website
(www.sdcc.ait.ac.th/tna).
Question: Is there life after TNAs? How do you think TNAs can, or
should, relate to Low Carbon Development plans and NAMAS?
Answer: Development of TNAs is one of the important steps in the
overall process of promoting low carbon development. The methodology
(and the process) involved in the sector and technology prioritisation,
as well as identification and assessment of barriers taking into
consideration the various issues and criteria, will be of use to
policymakers and others for the development, deployment and diffusion
of low carbon technologies. Therefore, the TNA project is closely
related to counties low carbon development plans, and so the capacity
developed and the knowledge gained through this project are valuable
tools. In fact, some of the procedures and the results are also being
considered for inclusion in our post-graduate teaching.