January 2009: The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) will launch the World Economic and Social Survey 2009-Climate Change and Development (WESS 2009) around mid-2009, to be available to the UNFCCC process, in particular, the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

WESS 2009 aims to provide a better understanding on the linkage between climate change and development with the aim of identifying the programmes and policies needed for low-carbon, high-growth and equitable development. The Survey will feature four parts that will: outline the key trends, prospects and policy challenges that climate change poses; analyze the threats that climate change poses to the development agenda; present the required building blocks of a sustainable development response; and establish the requirements of an international regime to support a new global deal on climate change and development by addressing issues concerning adequate mechanisms of financial transfers, regulatory frameworks, and a greened multilateral trading system. [Announcement of the Publication]