13 August 2014: The President of the UN General Assembly, John Ashe, has issued a Summary Report and recommendations from the four one-day “structured dialogues” on possible arrangements for a facilitation mechanism to promote the development, transfer and dissemination of clean and environmentally sound technologies. He also noted the presentation of draft elements for a procedural resolution on the issue, and indicated that the current co-facilitators will lead intergovernmental consultations in this regard.

The dialogues, mandated by the UNGA in Resolution 68/210, took place on 29-30 April 2014, 4 June 2014 and 23 July 2014, in New York, US. The President’s report summarizes the discussions and resulting recommendations, including on the possible modalities and organization of such a mechanism, in Section I. Section II summarizes the “tenor and evolution” of the discussions in individual Dialogues. Section III outlines recommendations on the way forward, based on converging views observed by the end of the fourth Dialogue.

The document will be submitted to the current UNGA session (UNGA 68) and for consideration and appropriate action by the UNGA at its 69th session, with the aim of reaching a conclusion on the issue, according to the 11 August letter of the co-facilitators, Paul Seger, Permanent Representative of Switzerland, and Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil.

In order to advance the deliberations because of their importance for the “post-2015 sustainable development framework,” the co-facilitators write, they introduced, during the last dialogue, the possibility of adopting a procedural resolution during the 68th UNGA. The procedural resolution would request: 1) the President of UNGA 69 to continue consultations based on the recommendations contained in the Summary; and 2) the UN Secretary-General to consider in his synthesis report the Summary and recommendations emerging from the four structured dialogues. The Summary Report contains a proposal of elements for a possible draft resolution.

In his letter of 13 August, Ashe announced his decision to appoint Seger and Patriota as co-facilitators for the consultations on the draft resolution. [Summary Report] [Structured Dialogues Webpage]