CREEC AT RADBOUND SUMMER SCHOOL COURSE ON CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

The EU-funded CARISMA project on innovation for climate change mitigation and the UN Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN) jointly organized a summer school course on climate change mitigation. CREEC’s Harriet Achieng was one of the participants in the course which took place from 14th to 18th August 2017 as part of the Radboud Summer School programme in Nijmegen, the Netherlands targeted post-graduates, PhD students or junior professionals in public service working on the topic of climate change mitigation. CREEC was the representative from Uganda among other participants from countries like Guinea, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Mozambique.

Harriet Achieng posing alongside other participants during the Radbound summer school course on climate change.

Climate change mitigation, i.e. human intervention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance sinks of greenhouse gases, is firmly on the international policy agenda since the Paris Agreement of December 2015. For meeting the Paris Agreement goals, an acceleration will be required of global development, deployment and diffusion of technologies and practices for mitigation. The summer school course took a multidisciplinary perspective and discussed climate mitigation technologies, practices, costs and benefits as well as related policies and needed governance.

In short, the course started with an introduction on technology transfer for climate change mitigation: what are potential technology options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, what are their climate footprints, what are cost items to consider, how to enhance public acceptance, and what R&D activities exist (are needed) to accelerate development, deployment and diffusion of technology options? 

As part of the course, Ms. Harriet Achieng also participated in an interactive workshop organized by the UN Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN), introducing her to technology transfer practice, with a specific focus on developing countries.

Over the years CREEC has generated different programmes to combat climate change and with this Ms. Harriet Achieng made a case study on how to priotize sectors and technologies for mitigation within Uganda’s context. The final part of the programme contained lectures on policies and governance for technologies for mitigation, including a key note lecture by a senior policy practitioner on technology transfer from an international climate policy and negotiation perspective.