26 February 2010: The Commonwealth Secretariat published an article titled “Trade Hot Topics Issue #69: Fourth UN Conference on LDCs – What to Expect?” in preparation for the fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (UNLDC IV). The article highlights, inter alia, the impacts of climate change on LDCs.
The article’s authors suggest that the outcome of the UNLDC IV, which is scheduled to be held in Turkey during the first half of 2011, could be synchronized with other ongoing international initiatives, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha trade talks, the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness, the Monterrey process on development finance, and “last but not the least” the global climate discourse.
The authors also suggest that UNLDC IV should focus on “structural change,” if not “structural progress,” attained by the LDCs during the last decade, while taking note of traditional issues, such as increasing share in global trade, energy and food security, as well as new issues, such as the global financial crisis and the implications of climate change. The authors advocate a multi-sectoral package, based on multiple instruments, to mitigate the adverse consequences of climate change as well as to encourage green growth. [The Article]