71

Integration of Low-Carbon Development Strategies into
Development Cooperation
Tomonori SUDO
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
5-25 Nibancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8012, Japane-mail: sudo.tomonori@jica.go.jp

Abstract
This paper focuses on the role of development cooperation toward low-carbon development in Asia andthe Pacific through lessons from past development cooperation. Since there is ample stock of experience andknowledge on development cooperation, such experience and knowledge in the development field can finduse in climate change action and would be valuable to learn from. Nevertheless, experience and knowledge indevelopment cooperation do not necessarily always provide the best guide. The most important point will be
how to mitigate and adapt to climate change without compromising development benefits to developing countries, particularly to the poorest people. In this sense, all stakeholders should participate in climate change
activities toward a common goal, and such activities should be inclusive.
Key words: climate change, development cooperation, development effectiveness, inclusive development,
low-carbon development

1. Introduction
Asia and the Pacific region are enjoying rapid economic growth. According to a report by the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB), the average GDP growth rate
in Asia and the Pacific region has reached 7.2% and the
ADB estimates that the region will enjoy constant growthover several years (ADB, 2012). Even though the Asian
region was also affected by financial turmoil in 2008,
stable economic growth in the region will contribute toachievement of several Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) and reduce the number of people living under
the poverty line. On the other hand, the Asian region has
become the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting region and still needs further development to alleviate
poverty. If the Asian region continues on its conventional
development path, further GHGs will be emitted and, inturn, climate change may affect the development benefits
and lives of poor people. That is why the Asian region
needs to seek a low-carbon development path.
Nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs),
as introduced at COP13 in Bali in 2007, serve asimportant criteria for climate policy developers andpractitioners. Although the definitions of the NAMAs
and procedures to channel NAMA support have not been
sufficiently clarified, several preparatory activities on the
ground are still in progress and they contribute tomaintaining the momentum to integrate mitigation
actions into development.
Global Environmental Research
17/2013: 71-78
printed in Japan

Accordingly, Asian developing countries are required
to achieve sustainable development while alleviating
poverty and mitigating GHG emissions. Thus, lowcarbon development has become an important aspect fordeveloping Asian countries.
On the other hand, as low-carbon development is one
development path, many kinds of development partners,
such as Official Development Assistance (ODA) andnon-ODA donors, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs),
the private sector and other stakeholders, need to be
involved. Bilateral and multilateral donors, among others,
are active partners for development in terms of providing
various forms of assistance, including financial andtechnical. Development cooperation provided by a variety of development partners is the key driver for
accelerating development in developing countries.
Finance is one critical resource among others forpromoting low-carbon and climate-resilient development.
The National Economic, Environment and Development
Study (NEEDS) for the Climate Change Project conducted by the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) (UNFCCC, 2011) assessedten financial resource needed for ten developing countries, including some Asian countries. The UN SecretaryGeneral’s High-Level Advisory Group on Climate
Change Financing analysed potential financial sources
and reported that raising US$100 billion per year would
be challenging but feasible. Buchner et al. (2011) pointed
out that at least US$97 billion per annum of climate©2013 AIRIES

72

T. SUDOchange financing is currently being provided to support
low-carbon, climate-resilient development activities. The
ADB (2009a) indicated that a huge volume of investment
is needed in the energy sector in the Asian region and also
named potential financial resources. In addition, theADB conducted an important flagship study on theeconomics of climate change in Southeast Asia (ADB
(2009b)). This study pointed out that there were large
number of international funding sources and mechanisms
available for mitigation and adaptation by developing
countries, but Southeast Asian countries had barely
tapped these sources. The Capacity Development forDevelopment Effectiveness (CDDE) (2010) pointed out
from their case study that [the issue on proliferation ofclimate change finance as one of burden for developing
countries to access climate change finance]. Therefore, it
is obvious that internationally collaborative development
cooperation may be a key to promoting low-carbon
development, since providing financing is also a part ofdevelopment cooperation.
This paper focuses on the role of development cooperation toward low-carbon development in Asia andthe Pacific through lessons from past development cooperation, touching upon current issues regarding
development cooperation from the view of development
practices. This paper is organized as follows: following
the introduction, in Section 2, issues regarding development and climate change are discussed with a focus on
MDGs and NAMAs. Section 3 focuses on the role ofdevelopment cooperation, given the current trends in
ODA in climate change issues and diversity of development needs, which depend on the economic status of
Asian developing countries. In Section 4, current issues
regarding development are highlighted based on a discussion of aid effectiveness and development effectiveness,followed in Section 5 by a discussion of how development cooperation could be effective in bringing about
low-carbon development. Some conclusions are presented in Section 6. In this article, the term “Development cooperation” refers to cooperative work/activities
for the purpose of development. This includes work andactivities at both domestic and international levels.
“International cooperation” refers to cooperative work/
activities at the international level but not the domestic
level. This includes work and activities for bothdevelopment and non-development purposes.

2. Climate Change and Development
As lots of studies have pointed out, climate change
and development are tightly linked since, in general,
growth in developing countries whose economies areoriented towards manufacturing, fuel and other extractive
industries is often carbon- and natural-resource intensive.
Despite the fact that Asian developing countries haveachieved rapid economic growth in recent decades, poverty still remains as a central issue in this region. The
ADB (2009b) reported that, “as of 2005, a quarter of the
population in Asian developing countries lives below the$1.25/day line and more than half of the population still
live below the $2.00/day poverty line. Although mostDeveloping Asian countries are on their way to achieving
the MDGs in income by 2015, many face great challenges in achieving the non-income MDGs.”
In addition, Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable
regions to climate change impacts such as droughts,
floods, typhoons, sea level rise and heat waves. This isbecause of its long coastlines, large and growing population, high concentration of human and economic activities in coastal areas, importance of the agriculture sector
in providing jobs and livelihoods for a large segment ofpeople (especially those living in poverty), and dependence of some countries on natural resources and the forestry sector for growth and development. Climate change
poses significant threats to the sustainability of theregion’s economic growth, its poverty reduction endeavors, achievement of the MDGs, and long-term prosperity(ADB, 2009b). Thus, the Asian region still needs further
efforts to alleviate poverty while addressing climatechange. That is one reason developing countries expect alarge volume of climate change financing for accelerating their climate change actions along with poverty
alleviation.
However, as Groff (2011) pointed out, “one of thefirst lessons we draw from the past 50 years (of experience in development assistance) is that greater volumesof development finance do not automatically translate
into better development results,” large volumes of finance are not necessarily a single solution contributing tobetter results of climate change action and development.
Developing economies, therefore, need to embracepolicies that help achieve concrete and measurable progress towards the twin objectives of stimulating economic growth and promoting reduction of GHG emissions simultaneously, and donors should provide theirdevelopment cooperation in an appropriate manner.
Otherwise, the world, including both developing countries and developed countries, may face risks associatedwith impacts of climate change as an external force on
global development. Climate change may cause the lossof developmental dividends accumulated in the past andexpected in the future. Particularly, the least developed
countries are highly vulnerable to external impacts including natural, economic and social impacts. Therefore,climate change would be a critical threat to developing
countries.
In 2007, NAMAs were introduced at COP 13 in Bali.
By the end of 2010, 47 Non-Annex I countries had
responded to the invitations in the Copenhagen Accord
and Cancun Agreements by submitting proposals for
NAMAs to the UNFCCC Secretariat (UNFCCC, 2011).
Table 1 shows some examples of NAMAs developed by
Asian developing countries. Some countries clearly
indicate a numerical target for reduction of GHGs but
others only list some activities for reducing GHGs.
Since there are still not many details available on
definitions of NAMAs or the procedures to channel
NAMA support, these submissions cover a broad range

Integration of Low-Carbon Development Strategies into Development Cooperation
Table 1 Examples of nationally appropriate mitigation actions(NAMAs) and targets submitted by selected Asian
countries to the UNFCCC (UNFCCC 2011).
Country
Bhutan
China

India

Indonesia

Mongolia

Mitigation actions and/or target
z Ensuring that emissions do not exceed the country’s sequestration capacity
z Reducing GHG emissions per unit of GDP by
40%-45% below the 2005 level by 2020z Increasing the share of non-fossil fuels to supply
15% of primary energy consumption by 2020z Increasing forest cover by 40 million hectares by
2020
z Increasing forest stock volume by 1.3 billion cubic
meters above the 2005 level by 2020z Reducing GHG emission per unit of GDP by 20% 25% below the 2005 level by 2020z Increasing the fraction of electricity delivered fromwind, solar and small hydro to 20% by 2020 (fromthe current level of 8%)z Adopting building energy codes by 2012
z Adopting fuel efficiency standards by 2011z Increasing forest cover to sequester 10% of annual
emissions in India’s forestsz Reducing emissions to 26% below the businessas-usual level by 2020z Introducing sustainable peatland managementz Reducting the rate of deforestation and landdegradationz Improving carbon sequestrationz Promoting energy efficiency and alternative andrenewable energy sourcesz Reducing solid and liquid wastes
z Introducing low-carbon transportz A series of actions, including increasing photovoltaic, solar and wind utilization and improving
energy efficiency

Sources: Extracted from Srinivasan, et al. (2012) and UNFCCC (2011).

of NAMA types, varying from emission targets andstrategies, to policies and projects (Röser et al., 2011).
Submissions also differ with regard to the level of detailprovided. Many NAMA submissions are “statements ofintent” that provide no further information on the proposed actions, on their status of development, or on thenational policy framework in which the NAMA isplanned to be embedded. However, a growing level ofbottom up NAMA activities is providing valuable insights into development aspects in particular.
Within the NAMA Pipeline Analysis and Databasedeveloped by the UNEP Risoe Centre (2012), many typesof mitigation activities are identified and most of them
are linked to development aspects such as renewableenergy use, energy efficiency improvement, waste management, forest management and transport. Those
activities are highly related to economic development.
Thus, mitigation activities need to be considered as partof development agendas.

3. The Role of Development Cooperation
Development is the most critical issue for developing
countries. In particular, poverty alleviation is the mostimportant objective of development. In September 2000,
the United Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted
at the UN Millennium Summit, committing those nations
to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty
and setting out a series of time-bound targets – with a73

deadline of 2015 – that have become known as the MDGs
(UN, 2000). Under the declaration, all nations including
developing countries need to make their best effort toachieve the goals, and developed countries should
mobilise their resources to help developing countries totackle to their obstacles towards the goals.
To assist developing countries in achieving theirdevelopment goals, a variety of development partners
may provide several types of development cooperation.
One major source of development cooperation is (ODA).
In general, ODA is a form of Government – Government
assistance, that is, ODA is provided by the developed
countries’ governments (some portion is provided
through multilateral donors) to assist developing countries’ public programmes and projects and/or provide
national budget support.
Figure 1 shows recent trends in climate-changemitigation-related ODA provided by OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member donors. The
figure includes ODA only and not other financial
resources such as private sector or CSO. Within a mere
three years from 2007, the amount of climate-changemitigation-related ODA doubled. Furthermore, the socalled “Principal Objective,” that is, ODA targeted
directly to changing mitigation activities, significantly
increased. In addition to the traditional DAC donors,
emerging non-DAC countries and other partners such as
CSOs/NGOs and the private sector also contribute toproviding development cooperation.
Since climate change is a global and cross-cutting issue, it is deemed difficult to address by any single country.
Therefore, international collaboration is the key totackling climate change. Particularly, every country lives
under different circumstances in terms of geography andeconomy, so one country’s strengths and weaknesses inclimate change may differ from other country’s. One
country’s strengths may allow it to support or overcome
the weaknesses of other countries. JICA and OECD(2010) tried to group the developing Asian countries interms of their level of development and economic structures (Table 2). Each Asian country is characterized interms of economic and social development level andstatus of industrialisation. Some groups of countries needto reduce GHG emissions from their current emission
level, and others may need to keep their emission levelwithin the current level while maintaining their economic
growth pace. Thus, there is variation among developing
Asian countries, and one measure cannot fit all.
Countries categorised in the same group are at a similarlevel in terms of economic and social development andindustrialisation status. Those countries can replicate
good practices in other countries within the same group,or learn lessons from the experiences of advanced country groups. Therefore, international cooperation is critical
for tackling climate change so that every country canapply other countries’ experiences and knowledge totheir own climate change actions.
International cooperation has been active in development for a long time. In more than 50 years’ experience in

74

T. SUDO

Fig. 1 Climate-change-mitigation-related aid.
2007-2009 Commitments.
Source: OECD/DAC CRS (2005) extracted from OECD (2011a).

Table 2 Groupings based on aid dependency and structural shift in industry.

Source: JICA and OECD (2010)

development cooperation, several lessons have beenlearned. Such lessons learned can be applied to climatechange actions.

4. Issues in Development Cooperation towards
Low-Carbon Development
So far, players in development cooperation havestruggled to deliver their services in more effective ways
toward development goals, including poverty alleviation.
Donors and recipient countries have experienced a lot of
failures and successes. Successful projects have generated more additional developmental benefit than expected, but failures have generated little benefit orsometimes had a negative impact on recipients Most
failures of aid have happened due to 1) the development
project being developed by the donor and irrelevant to therecipient country, 2) different approaches being proposedby the donors but recipient countries unable manage
them, 3) the recipient country needing to establish new

systems and/or institutions to implement the project andthose systems not working appropriately, 4) stakeholders
not knowing about the project, thereby facing a negative
impact from it, etc. Learning from such lessons, in 2005,
OECD/DAC member countries, multilateral donors anddeveloping countries endorsed the “Paris Declaration on
Aid Effectiveness” (OECD, 2005) at the High Level
Forum on Aid Effectiveness, held in Paris. The Paris
Declaration consists of five essential tenets, 1) Ownership, 2) Alignment, 3) Harmonization, 4) Managementfor Development Results, and 5) Mutual accountability.
Ownership is the foundational principle of the Paris
Declaration. Development is something that must be
done by developing countries, not to them. Policies andinstitutional reforms will be effective only so far as they
emerge out of genuinely country-led processes. External
assistance must be tailored towards helping developing
countries achieve their own development objectives,
leaving donors in a supporting role.
Under the Paris Declaration, the principle of align-Integration of Low-Carbon Development Strategies into Development Cooperation

ment refers to two important changes to aid practice. The
first is that donors should base their support on the partner country’s development priorities, policies and strategies (‘policy alignment’). The second is that aid should
be delivered as far as possible using the country’s own
systems for managing development activities, rather than
through stand-alone project structures (‘systems alignment’).
Harmonisation refers to cooperation among donors to
improve the efficiency of aid delivery. Donors are awarethat multiple initiatives by different donors, each with
their rules and procedures, can be very draining fordeveloping country administrations. To reduce the transaction costs of aid, donors have been developing a rangeof new approaches, including programme-based approaches, pooled funding arrangements, joint country
plans and other common arrangements.
Managing for results is a general principle of management that involves using information about results
systematically to improve decision-making and strengthen performance. In the development field, it means
ensuring that all development activities are orientatedtowards achieving the maximum benefits for poor men
and women. It means ensuring that all initiatives, fromindividual aid projects through to national development
strategies, are designed so as to generate performance
information and use it for continuous improvement.
Mutual accountability is perhaps the most controversial of the Paris principles, and the most difficult to put
into practice. It suggests that, in a true development
partnership, there are commitments on both sides of therelationship, and both donors and partner countries
should be accountable to each other (‘mutual’ accountability) for meeting those commitments. However, there
are also many other accountability relationships involvedin the development process that need to be taken into
account. One of the innovative aspects of the Paris
Declaration is that the commitments are reciprocal innature, applying both to donors and to developing countries. This is an advance on its predecessor, the Rome
Declaration, where the commitments were all on thedonor side, and to traditional aid practices where theobligations were mostly on recipients. Reciprocal commitments create for the first time the possibility of mutual
accountability.
Even though the Paris Declaration provided politicalguidance for effective development assistance, there still
exist some critical issues regarding development cooperation such as fragmentation of aid and new actors indevelopment. In addition, poverty and inequity are still
central challenges worldwide. Furthermore, due to drastic changes in the world landscape, including global
externalities such as climate change, the nature ofdevelopment cooperation may need to change. At theHigh Level Forum on Development Effectiveness held in
Busan in 2011, high level representatives from developing and developed countries recognised the necessity ofshifting their focus from “aid effectiveness” to “development effectiveness” and shared common principles

75

forming the foundation of development cooperation for
effective development: 1) ownership of development
priorities by developing countries, 2) focus on results, 3)
inclusive development partnerships, and 4) mutualtransparency and accountability. Based on the experiences of the Paris Declaration and reflecting the recent
world landscape, many bilateral and multilateral donors
and developing countries adopted a new global partnership framework toward development effectiveness at the
4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness at Busan,
Republic of Korea (OECD, 2011c). OECD (2011c) highlighted the importance of engagement of a wide range ofdevelopment actors, such as emerging donors, CSOs andthe private sector. In addition, OECD (2011c) also
highlighted the endeavour to promote coherence, transparency and predictability across all our approaches for
effective climate finance and broader development cooperation.

5. Effective Development Cooperation
towards Low-Carbon Development
The nature of international cooperation heretofore has
been for development to be the central aspect of cooperation. Therefore, international cooperation should play acentral role in linking development with climate change
aspects. One way to bridge development and climatechange is to take a “co-benefit approach.” A co-benefit
approach generates both developmental benefits andclimate change benefits (See Fig. 2).
Infrastructure development with conventional technologies may lead to a fossil-energy-dependent technology lock-in. Therefore, considering the long lifetimeof infrastructure, developing “fossil-energy-dependent
economies” in developing countries should be avoided.
Developing countries, however, need to address the issue
of increasing energy demand due to economic growth.
Accordingly, they would like to develop energy projects
using conventional fossil fuel since fossil-fuel-fired
power stations are a proven technology which can beused in developing countries and at a cheaper cost than
new technologies. Therefore, powerful policies areneeded based on strong political will to introduce newtechnologies such as renewable and energy-saving
technology. For developing “co-benefiting” policies,
development partners such as bilateral and multilateraldevelopment agencies can provide assistance throughtheir international cooperation.
An example of good practice in supporting climatechange policy formation through international cooperation may be the case of the climate change program loan
to Indonesia (for details, see Sudo et al., 2008). Programloans are an application of a sort of structural adjustment
loan (SAL) which is intended to promote policy andfiscal reform. Under an SAL, the donor provides financing (in general, budgetary support) if the recipient country achieves targets set by agreement between the donor
and developing country. The major differences between
an SAL and a climate change program loan are 1) policy

76

T. SUDO

Fig. 2 Concept of the “co-benefit approach.”
Source: Sudo (2009).

reforms are specified for a climate change program loan,
and 2) no conditionality is set. Instead of conditionality,
the donors and recipient country jointly conduct monitoring work and hold dialogues to analyze reasons for any
failures to achieve targets, and the results of these
dialogues are reflected in the subsequent policy matrix.
Thus, ownership by the recipient countries is respected
and the recipient countries are encouraged to overcome
challenges by themselves with support from the donors.
Thus, international cooperation can play a role inbridging climate change and development by integratingclimate change within the development agenda.
Even if ODA is the main public source of financing
from developed countries to developing countries, it is
not necessarily a stable source of financing, since thevolume of ODA depends on the budget constraints ofdeveloped countries. Nevertheless, many developing
countries, particularly the least developed countries, rely
on ODA as an important external finance source.
Reflecting such strong needs from developing countries,
predictability and more efficient and effective use ofclimate change financing, the same as for development
financing, is requested from developing countries(CDDE Facility, 2010).
In view of the nature of international cooperation,
ODA can play several roles. First, direct financial assistance through ODA can be used directly to implement
climate change actions. Since ODA is public in nature, it
is used to generate economic and social benefits rather
than financial benefits, and it assists developing countries’ fiscal budgets as well. In particular, adaptation
activities which are more public in nature and mitigation
projects which are not financially bankable but need to be
implemented to meet economic and/or social needs canbe supported through international cooperation.
In addition, bilateral and multilateral donors canencourage other finance sources to provide financial
assistance by providing “seed money.” Even if the “seedmoney” covers only a small portion of the project costs, it

makes it possible to leverage other financing, since theparticipation of bilateral and multilateral donors sometimes has a great impact in terms of risk sharing,intervention in the developing country’s government,
development aspects such as poverty alleviation, environmental and social aspects, etc.
This may facilitate a Public Private Partnership (PPP).
A PPP is a scheme allowing the private sector to participate in public projects. Under a PPP, the public sector can
generate private sector financing in public projects which
are considered, in general, to be implemented by publicfinancing. In addition, the public sector can benefit fromthe private sector’s strengths, such as efficient project
management and operation. On the other hand, a PPP
also provides an opportunity for the private sector to
generate profits. The private sector can generate decent
profits from a public project by selecting components toparticipate in. In addition, since the project has a public
purpose, the public sector will fully support and/or share
the risks associated with the project. Thus, a PPP is
deemed a win-win solution for public sector projects, if
applicable. On the other hand, there are several pros andcons to introducing a PPP. International cooperation canalso assist such activities by supporting public financing,participating in the project as a stakeholder and/or financier, so that international cooperation facilitates bettercollaboration between the public sector and private
sector.
Furthermore, bilateral and multilateral donors can
support innovative activities as “demonstration” projects.
Innovative actions such as introducing new technology
are associated with further risks, since few have a trackrecord and the risk of failure of these activities is
considerably higher than for conventional actions. That is
why project developers hesitate to implement innovative
activities. If innovative activities are implemented successfully and generate great value in terms of climatechange and development, such innovative activities will
be defused broadly. The Clean Development Mechanism

Integration of Low-Carbon Development Strategies into Development Cooperation(CDM) is a typical success case. A CDM is an innovative
activity which transforms emission reduction into monetary value in the form of Certified Emission Reductions(CERs), if the project is registered as a CDM andsuccessfully implemented to reduce GHG emissions withappropriate monitoring and verification. In the first stage
when the concept of CDMs was introduced under the
Kyoto Protocol and Marrakech Accord, most project
developers hesitated to implement CDMs due to risks ofunclear institution and lack of a track record. However,thanks to the great efforts of the Prototype Carbon Fundunder the World Bank to develop capacities of project
developers and initial demonstrations of CDM projects inthe early stage, the number of CDM projects is gradually
increasing and it has become one of the most popular
activities for GHG reduction in which developing countries participate and enjoy benefits from their efforts.
Thus, demonstration is also an important role of international cooperation.
Second, international cooperation plays a role inencouraging other sources of financing to bankroll climate change activities in indirect ways. One of the mostimportant tasks of international cooperation is capacity
development through technical cooperation. As discussed in the previous section, capacity is critical todeveloping countries for developing and implementing
climate change policies, strategies and actions, deploying
new technologies and receiving financing. Even if thegovernment expects to increase foreign direct investmentin the country, foreign investors may hesitate to invest in
the country if it has unfavorable investment regulations .
Thus, policy coherence may be an important factor inbusiness and investment decisions for foreign investors.
Development partners can provide technical cooperation
for developing capacity to help developing countries
create their own appropriate climate change policies andstrategies appropriate to the countries’ circumstances.
That is a fundamental capacity for developing countries.
In addition, based on their climate change policies andstrategy framework, development partners also assist by
developing the capacity to coordinate among several

77

sorts of players such as line ministries, civil society
organizations, donors and private sector financiers. Furthermore, international cooperation can contribute to thecreation of an environment that enables the private sector
to act as a central player in climate change actions.
Development of not only economic infrastructure but
also social infrastructure is an important factor to theprivate sector in making investment decisions, given theappropriate legal framework. In addition, mitigating risks
associated with private sector activities is one factor inproducing a good environment for investment. For
example, stable and appropriate governance, stable economic conditions, appropriate foreign exchange control,
appropriate taxation and subsidies, etc., are critical.
Having said that, as climate change is a global issue,
all actors should work under an internationally agreed
framework and cooperate internationally. In particular,
developing Asian countries exist under a variety ofconditions in terms of geography and economy, there is a
big stock of experiences and knowledge. Japan, the ADB,UNEP and Sweden have developed a network for sharing
information on adaptation in Asia and the Pacific region,
called the “Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network.” This
forum is working well to share experience and knowledge on adaptation among developing Asian countries,
and this work is expanding to other regions such as Latin
America. Thus, even developing countries can obtain
useful experience and knowledge applicable to otherdeveloping countries. Such south-south cooperation, as
one scheme of international cooperation, may be apossible solution for bridging the information gap.
Development partners may be able to facilitate suchcooperation in a triangular cooperation arrangement.
This scheme was also highlighted at the High Level
Forum on Aid Effectiveness (OECD, 2011c).
Figure 3 gives an overall picture of the role of international cooperation in bridging the gaps. Thus, international cooperation can work as a catalyst to encourageother finance sources to invest in climate change activity
directly and indirectly.

Fig. 3 The role of international cooperation.
T/C: Technical Cooperation. Source: Drawn by author.

78

T. SUDO6. Conclusions
This article discusses the roles of international
cooperation. In general, international cooperation canplay an important role in bridging several gaps between
expectations and reality. Since there is a great stock ofexperience and knowledge in development cooperation,
this storehouse of knowledge can find meaningful
application in climate change action. Although climatechange financing is expected to increase in the medium
term, the effective and efficient use of climate change
financing should be considered. Experience and knowledge in international cooperation can be applied to theeffective and efficient use of climate change actions as
well.
Nevertheless, the experience and knowledge in development cooperation are not necessarily always thebest guide. Kalirajan et al. (2011) pointed out that there
are several points where ODA has been inefficient andineffective. Thus, we may be able to learn a lot from such
experiences. However, the most important point, as
Kalirajan et al. (2011) also highlighted, is how to mitigate and adapt to climate change without compromising
the developmental benefits to developing countries,
particularly the poorest people. In this sense, all stakeholders should participate in climate change activities
toward a common goal, and such activities should be
inclusive.
References
Asian Development Bank (ADB) (2009a) Improving Energy
Security and Reducing Carbon Intensity in Asia and the Pacific,
Asian Development Bank, Manila.
ADB (2009b) The Economics of Climate Change in Southeast
Asia: Regional Review, Asian Development Bank, Manila.
ADB (2012) Asian Development Outloook 2012 – Confronting
Rising Inequality in Asia, Asian Development Bank, Manila.
ADB, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) andUnited Nations Economic and Social Council for Asia and thePacific (UNESCAP) (2010) Summary of Workshop on LowCarbon Growth, Output of the Workshop on Low-Carbon
Growth in Asia and the Pacific held at Bangkok.
Buchner, B., A. Falconer, M. Herve-Mignucci, C. Trabacci and M.
Brinkman (2011) The Landscape of Climate Finance – A CPI
Report, Climate Policy Initiative, Venice.
Capacity Development for Development Effectiveness (CDDE)
Facility (2010) Realizing Development Effectiveness – Making
the most of climate change finance in Asia and the Pacific,
Capacity Development for Development Effectiveness (CDDE)
Facility, Bangkok.
Groff, S. (2011) Climate Finance – Lessons from Aid Effectiveness, OECD Insight, Paris.
<http://oecdinsights.org/2011/08/16/climate-finance-%e2%80%
93-lessons-from-aid-effectiveness>
JICA and OECD (2010) Study on Low-Carbon Growth in Asia,
JICA and OECD, Paris
Kalirajan, K., K. Singh, S. Thangavelu, A. Venkatachalam and K.
Perera (2011) Climate Change and Poverty Reduction – Where
does ODA money go? ADBI Working Paper Series No.318,
Tokyo.
OECD (2005) The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, OECD,

Paris.
OECD (2011a) Financing Climate Change Action and boosting
Technology Change, OECD, Paris.
OECD (2011b) Toward Green Growth –OECD Green Growth
Strategy, OECD, Paris.
OECD (2011c) Busan Partnership for Effective Development
Cooeration, Busan.
Röser, F., X. van Tilburg, S. Davis and N. Höhne (2011) Annual
Status Report on Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions(NAMAs) 2011, Ecofys.
Srinivasan, A., F.H. Ling and H. Mori (2012) Climate smart
development in Asia: An overview. In: Srinivasan, A., Ling,
F.H., and Mori, H., eds, Climate Smart Development in Asia –Transition to Low-Carbon and Climate Resilient Economies,
Routledge, London and New York.
Sudo, T., A. Sato, Y. Murakami and M. Motohashi (2008) Promotion of Developing country’s climate policy implementation
applying Development Policy Loan, Paper presented at Annual
conference of Society for Environment Economics and Political
Studies (SEEPS), Osaka.
Sudo, T. (2009) Greening recovery, Paper presented at an Asia
Asia-wide Regional High High-level Meeting on The Impact of
the Global Economic Slowdown on Poverty and Sustainable
Development in Asia and the Pacific, September 2009, Hanoi.
UNEP Risoe Centre (2012) NAMA Pipeline analysis and Database,<http://www.namapipeline.org/>
United Nations General Assembly (2000) United Nations Millennium Declaration, resolution adopted at fifty-fifth session,
A/RES/55/2, 18 September 2000.
UNESCAP, ADB and United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) (2012) Green Growth, Resources and Resilience –Environmental Sustainability in Asia and the Pacific, United
Nations and Asian Development Bank Publication, ST/ESCAP/
2600, RPT124260.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) (2010) Synthesis Report on the National Economic,
environment and Development Study (NEEDS) for Climate
Change Project, FCCC/SBI/2010/INF.7, Bonn.
UNFCCC (2011) Compilation of information on nationallyappropriate mitigation actions to be implemented by Parties notincluded in Annex I to the Convention, FCCC/AWGLCA/
2011/INF.1, Bonn.

Tomonori SUDO
Tomonori SUDO is a research fellow at the JICA
Research Institute of the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) Japan. He is currently
engaged in several studies on environmental andclimate change issues at the JICA ResearchInstitute. He also serves as a member of theEnvironment and Development Cooperation Network, under the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). He
has long experience with ODA loan operation to Indonesia, Malaysia,
Bangladesh and China, and has been seconded to the African Development
Bank as a Private Sector Specialist to promote private sector developmentin Africa. In addition, at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies(IGES) he has conducted several studies on climate policy and capacity
building with regard to the Clean Development Mechanism in several
Asian countries. Before joining JICA, he gained experience in private
sector finance at a Japanese commercial bank, Dr. Sudo received his Ph.D.
in International Studies from Waseda University, Japan, his B.A. in
Economics from Osaka University in Osaka, Japan, and his M.Sc. inEnvironmental & Resource Economics from the University of London(University College London).

(Received 1 June 2012, Accepted 5 October 2012)