18 June 2008: The UN Conference on Trade and
Development’s (UNCTAD) Working Party on the Medium-term Plan
and Programme Budget met from 16–18 June 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland, and discussed
a work plan for the implementation of the outcomes of the twelfth UNCTAD, held in Accra,
Ghana, in
April 2008.

The Working Party recommended the
implementation of the outcomes of UNCTAD XII with minimum delay, including climate
change, “in accordance with paragraph 100 of the Accra Accord (document
TD/B/WP/L.130 paragraph 10.6).” Article 100 of the Accra Accord states that UNCTAD, “within its mandate and without duplicating the
ongoing work of other organizations, should consider climate change in its
ongoing work of assisting developing countries with trade- and
investment-related issues in development strategies.” Within this mandate, the
proposed 2008-2011 work plan, which will be finalized at the next meeting of
the Working Party, scheduled for September 2008 (TD/B(WP)/50/CRP.1),
includes: contributions on climate change to the Chief Executives Board and its
subsidiary bodies, as well as to the UN-wide system response to the challenge
of climate change in the context of sustainable development. It also states
that UNCTAD should conduct: economic analysis on the trade,
development and climate change interface; analyses on trade competitiveness
issues arising from a post-Kyoto regime; and economic analyses of
cross-cutting issues related to the trade and development aspects of climate
change. The publication of
training material on the rules of the Clean Development Mechanism is planned
for 2010-2011, as well as technical cooperation activities including the
provision of advisory services to assess investment opportunities for
developing countries arising from multilateral environmental agreements related
to biodiversity and climate change, and the organization
of international policy fora on the interface and mutual supportiveness of
trade and climate change policy. [Working
Party website]