Providing on-demand legal, technical and strategic advice to the Least Developed Countries Group

Stepping up global ambition to stay below 1.5°C

Project

Active

Began 2011

IIED works to strengthen the position of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in international climate negotiations and related global forums. We do this by providing real-time legal, technical and strategic advice and research support to the LDC Group in the UNFCCC process. We collaborate directly with the LDC chair and members of the LDC Group's core team of negotiators in delivering our work.

Participants meet at a side event during the 18th Conference of the Parties, Doha 2012

As early as 2001 IIED supported senior Least Developed Countries (LDC) negotiators to create their own negotiating bloc, the LDC Group. And ever since we have been working closely with the group by providing legal, technical and strategic advice in the negotiations, and building its expertise in key topics by providing research and analysis.

This work falls under a larger package of support to the LDCs, through which IIED organises capacity-building workshops, enhances the representation of LDC negotiators, provides logistical and administrative support, and helps establish an online presence for the group.

What is IIED doing?

Climate change negotiations are characterised by frequently emerging issues, technical jargon, carefully crafted wording and continuous references to various legal principles and provisions.

This proliferation of scientific, technical and legal issues, institutions and processes has prolonged and increased the work burden for already strained negotiators in the LDC Group. Even the most senior negotiators require technical advice and support to keep up with the pace of continuous and complex scientific, policy and legal information flows.

IIED's real-time legal, technical and strategic advice to the LDC Group chair and members of its core team helps to reduce this heavy burden. In addition, it helps to ensure strong group leadership, develop a long-term strategic vision, preserve institutional memory and guarantee a smooth transition as the chairmanship rotates every two years.

The group also needs strong research inputs to strengthen its arguments in the negotiations, and IIED strives to provide these. We work with senior LDC negotiators to co-produce research papers, briefings and blogs that directly inform the ongoing negotiations.

We have also produced an LDC paper series in partnership with the European Capacity Building Initiative, to provide research support and to ensure negotiators are well prepared with the facts, figures and analysis they need to drive effective decisions.

Publications

Higher ambition for lower temperatures: what LDCs could achieve at COP24, Gebru Jember Endalew, Binyam Yakob Gebreyes, Gabrielle SA Swaby (2018), IIED Briefing Paper

Action, ambition, investment: what success at COP23 looks like for LDCs, Achala Abeysinghe, Brook Dambacher, Rebecca Byrnes, Gebru Jember Endalew, Subhi Barakat (2017), IIED Briefing Paper

The Paris Agreement: options for an effective compliance and implementation mechanism, Achala Abeysinghe, Subhi Barakat (2016), IIED Issue Paper

Entry into force of the Paris Agreement: the legal process, Achala Abeysinghe, Caroline Prolo (2016), IIED Issue Paper

A vision for the Least Developed Countries Fund in a post-Paris climate regime, Janna Tenzing, Stephanie Andrei, Giza Gaspar-Martins, Bubu Pateh Jallow, Evans Njewa (2016), IIED Briefing Paper

Compliance in the 2015 climate agreement, Achala Abeysinghe, Caroline Prolo, M. Hafijul Islam Khan (2015), LDC Paper Series

LDC perspectives on the future of the Least Developed Countries Fund, Janna Tenzing, Giza Gaspar-Martins, Bubu Pateh Jallow (2015), LDC Paper Series

Technology development and transfer, the Least Developed Countries and the future climate regime, Brianna Craft, Karma Tshering, Fred Machulu Onduri, Stella Funsani Gama (2015), LDC Paper Series

Advancing gender equality in the post-2020 climate regime, Janna Tenzing, Stephanie Andrei, Stella Gama (2015), IIED Briefing

Lima: paving the way to success in Paris, Janna Tenzing (2014), IIED Briefing

Seven elements and seven steps for an effective climate agreement, Achala Abeysinghe, Prakash Mathema (2014), IIED Briefing

Technology transfer for Least Developed Countries, Brianna Craft (2014), IIED Backgrounder

Understanding key positions of the Least Developed Countries in climate change negotiations, Prakash Mathema, Achala Abeysinghe, Janna Tenzing (2014), IIED Briefing

A burden to share? Addressing unequal climate impacts in the Least Developed Countries by David Ciplet, Timmons Roberts, Pa Ousman Jarju, Achala C. Abeysinghe, Alexis Durand, Daniel Kopin, Olivia Santiago, Keith Madden and Sophie Purdom (2013), IIED Briefing

Helping UN negotiators protect the poorest, Achala C Abeysinghe (2011), IIED Reflect & Act

Additional resources

A guide to transparency under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, Achala Abeysinghe, Subhi Barakat, Yamide Dagnet, Gebru Jember Endalew, Bubu Pateh Jallow, Camilla H More, Tshewang Dorji, Cleo Verkuijl (2017), IIED Toolkit

Least Developed Countries' experiences with the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism, Brianna Craft, Stella Gama, Thinley Namgyel (2017), IIED Issue Paper

Provisions for support to Least Developed Countries: facilitating the implementation of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, Rebecca Byrnes, Stella Gama, Mamadou Honadia, Bubu Pateh Jallow, Marek Soanes, Priyanka Teeluck, Janna Tenzing (2017), IIED Toolkit.

National adaptation plans: Understanding mandates and sharing experiences, Achala Abeysinghe, Broom M Dambacher, Rebecca Byrnes (2017), IIED Issue Paper

The long road to Paris (2016), IIED Report

Strengthening the Lima Work Programme on Gender; perspectives from Malawi and the CBD, Stella Gama, Priyanka Teeluck, Janna Tenzing (2016), IIED Issue Paper

The Paris Agreement and the LDCs, Achala Abeysinghe, Brianna Craft, Janna Tenzing (2016), IIED Issue Paper | en français

The climate negotiator, Helen Burley (2016), IIED longread

A fair climate deal in Paris means adequate finance to deliver INDCs in LDCs, Neha Rai, Marek Soanes, Andrew Norton, Simon Anderson, Paul Steele, Janna Tenzing, James MacGregor (2015), IIED Briefing

Options for the legal form of the Paris outcome, Achala Abeysinghe, Caroline Prolo (2015), IIED Event Paper

Lima outcomes and the status of ADP negotiators, Janna Tenzing (2015), IIED Event Paper