8 February 2008
Masato Kawanishi, JICA
SD-PAMs and LCS:
Co-benefit Approach to Mitigation in Developing Countries and a Role of ODA
Japanese ODA on Climate Change
Addressing global issues, including climate change, is one of four priorities outlined in
the Official Development Assistance (ODA) Charter, Japan’s basic policy of ODA, which
was revised in 2003. Japan’s Medium-Term Policy on ODA, formulated in 2005, also
underlines the importance of taking measures against climate change. Japan introduced
the ‘Invitation to Cool Earth 50’ initiative in 2007 and announced that it would support‘developing countries with high aspirations’ that make efforts to achieve bothgreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and economic growth. Most recently, PrimeMinister Fukuda announced that Japan would establish the ‘Cool Earth Partnership’, afinancial mechanism for assistance to developing countries on climate change.
As the agencies of implementing ODA, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) 1 carry out a number ofdevelopmental projects which also produce climate benefits2. A co-benefit approach isemphasized, given the fact that the primary concerns of developing countries are theirown development, not the climate. With co-benefit approach, ODA gives an incentive fordeveloping countries to take a more climate-friendly development path.
SD-PAMs and Co-benefits
The use of Sustainable Development Policies and Measures (SD-PAMs) is proposed as
one type of mitigation action by developing countries (Bradley et al, 2005). It comesfrom the idea that ‘a more sustainable development path has lower emissions, even
without any explicit climate policy’ (South Africa, 2007). In other words, SD-PAMs arebased on co-benefits, more specifically climate benefits of sustainable development. In
this sense, SD-PAMs share the common basis with JICA/JBIC approach to mitigation indeveloping countries. SD-PAMs are expected to play a role of engaging developing
1In October 2008, JICA and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Operations (OECOs) of JBIC will merge
to form the ‘New JICA’, which will offer a one stop service for technical assistance, grant aid and ODA loans.
2
For our co-benefit project examples, please refer to JICA and JBIC (2007).

countries in the post-2012 framework.
There are a range of issues, however, that need to be defined to implement SD-PAMs,
such as which countries and what types of policies and measures would be eligible for
SD-PAMs (Ellis, 2007). How SD-PAMs could be monitored is also an important questionin light of the Bali Action Plan, adopted at COP13, where the international community
agreed to consider ‘mitigation actions by developing countries in the context ofsustainable development ... in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner’(UNFCCC, 2007).
In addition, the real effectiveness of SD-PAMs needs to be examined. Given the scale ofthe climate problems we face, SD-PAMs on their own may not be enough. For moreadvanced developing countries in particular, SD-PAMs would need to be implemented
together with other strategies, such as sectoral approaches.
Conclusion
SD-PAMs as well as a co-benefit approach are a good starting point for engaging
developing countries into mitigation action. In order to achieve the ultimate objective of
the Convention, however, SD-PAMs would need to be complemented by other strategic
approaches. This would be particularly the case with major emitting countries, wheresome climate-centric actions would need to be integrated into SD-PAMs in order toachieve Low Carbon Society (LCS).
References
Bradley, Rob and Jonathan Pershing (2005) Introduction to Sustainable Development
Policies and Measures, in Growing in the Greenhouse: Protecting the Climate byPutting Development First, http://pdf.wri.org/gig_chapter1.pdf
Ellis, Jane, Richard Baron and Barbara Buchner (2007) SD-PAMs: What, Where, Whenand How?, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/12/39725449.pdf
JICA and JBIC (2007) Climate Change Co-operation by JICA and JBIC, Tokyo, Japan
South Africa (2006) Sustainable Development Policies and Measures, http://
unfccc.int/files/meetings/dialogue/application/pdf/working_paper_18_south_africa.pdf
UNFCCC(2007)

BaliAction

http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_13/application/pdf/cp_bali_action.pdf

Plan,