Climate Change and Development: Generating UN Initiatives

Climate change presents a fundamental challenge to development but also holds new opportunities for low-carbon growth. The United Nations (UN), as an important actor in development and climate change activities, is positioning itself to address this challenge and seize on the opportunities it presents.

The United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) is looking for opportunities to encourage and support UN initiatives that address climate change and economic development, especially where the effectiveness of the UN can be clearly established.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

• Determine the comparative advantages and effectiveness of UN activities at the interface of climate change and economic development;

• Explore activities, including new initiatives, which USUN might advance in this area;

• Identify ― "centers of excellence" in New York as a resource for USUN when considering UN and global efforts to address climate change and development.

The final report presents the findings of the Capstone workshop that acted as an informal policy task force providing information and ideas to USUN.