21 November 2014: During the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) 23rd annual meeting of the Committee on Sustainable Energy (CSE23), which was the final meeting of UNECE Sustainable Energy Week, UNECE Member States approved recommendations to the UNFCCC on how carbon capture and storage (CCS) should be treated in a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement.

UNECE Member States agreed to recommend to the UNFCCC that the expected 2015 climate change agreement: continue to recognize CCS as an environmentally sound technology and an eligible project level activity within carbon markets and funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF); accept a broad range of fiscal instruments to support CCS, while the selection of which to use would be left to the discretion of national governments; recognize CCS’s application in many industrial sectors in addition to the energy sector; and address measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) to ensure carbon dioxide (CO2) is permanently stored. They also noted that national and international policies should ensure CCS has sufficient support, on par with other low-carbon technologies, for commercial development, including through government financing of demonstration projects.

The meeting, held 19-21 November 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland, was attended by more than 140 representatives from UNECE Member States, in addition to a plethora of non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations. In opening the meeting, UNECE Executive Secretary Christian Friis Bach called attention to CSE23’s focus on lowering the carbon footprint of the energy sector and supporting the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative. He gave his take on the meeting’s theme question ‘Energy for Sustainable Development – Must Reality Conflict with Ambition?’ by pointing to the range of policy options that could shift the world’s course to a sustainable energy future.

The high-level segment continued with addresses from the World Energy Council, Russian Ministry of Energy and KPMG International, followed by a panel dialogue, which further examined the session’s theme, assessing ways to accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable energy system.

In the evening of 19 November 2014, the inaugural ‘Geneva Conversations’ event was hosted at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor to Shell, underscored that, while emissions continue to rise despite government efforts, the solutions to climate change are still within reach.

In its other work, the Committee also discussed the Group of Experts on Energy Efficiency meeting conclusions and recommendations, as well as its 2014-2015 Work Plan, and the Work Plans for the Group of Experts on Renewable Energy, Expert Group on Resource Classification, Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Production from Fossil Fuels, Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane, and Group of Experts on Gas.

The next Sustainable Energy Week is anticipated to take place 16-20 November 2015, with CSE24 taking place 18-20 November 2015. [UNECE Press Release] [IISD RS Sources] [Committee on Sustainable Energy Webpage] [CSE23 Webpage] [IISD RS Story on Sustainable Energy Week Workshop] [IISD RS Story on Group of Experts on Energy Efficiency Meeting]