The third in a series of preparatory sessions for the Major Economies Forum on Climate Change and Energy convened in Cuernavaca, Mexico, from 22-23 June 2009.

The Forum is scheduled to take placein L’Aquila, Italy, on 9 July, on the margins of the G-8 Summit. The MEF process seeks to facilitate the dialogue between the largest developed and developing economies, support political leadership to generate positive outcomes at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009, and explore concrete initiatives to increase clean energy sources, reducing greenhouse emissions at the same time.

According to a press report, the draft document for the Forum indicates that economies including the US and China are considering setting a goal of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 when they meet in Italy, and that the MEF will seek to double public investments in low-carbon technology by 2015 and boost funding from public and private sources as well as from carbon markets. The draft was reported to have been put forward by the US and Mexico during the session in Mexico. The two-page draft declaration does not set clear goals but says that developed countries, including the US, the European Union and Japan, would “undertake robust aggregate and individual mid-term reductions in the 2020 timeframe.” The text also indicates that the countries will set up a global partnership aiming to double public sector investments in research and development of low-carbon technologies by 2015.

The partnership would seek to remove barriers and create incentives to promote technologies such as energy efficiency, solar energy, smart grids, carbon capture, use and storage, advanced vehicles and bio-energy. The text is also reported to indicate that funds to combat climate change will need to be substantially scaled up, and a fast start funding arrangement, perhaps US$400 million, may be offered to help developing countries.
Link to further information
Reuters press release, 25 June 2009