Workshop "Climate Change Diplomacy" - "EU-Asia Dialogue" - Regional Programme Political Dialogue Asia
Workshop
Details
On April 18-19, 2012, an international workshop on “Climate Change Diplomacy – Prospects for Regional and Global Agreements” took place at the Hilton Petaling Jaya Hotel in Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia. This workshop in the context of the "EU-Asia Dialogue" involved policy-makers and researchers from Asia and Europe. Among others, representatives from the European Commission Directorate-General Climate Action, the Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia, the British High Commission in Malaysia, the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines, the British Grantham Institute for Climate Change, E3G and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore attended this event. The aim was to analyze the on-going international negotiations on a common agreement with regard to climate change, to identify obstacles for common agreements and to discuss on activities of the project which may contribute to enhance multilateral solutions. It was the aim not to debate on consequences of climate change, but to discuss on the various diplomatic strategies of countries and the obstacles hindering the negotiations. Due to this high level of participants, the discussions were very fruitful and detailed. The researchers and policy-makers from Asia and Europe brought in various perspectives on the topic. Thus, the group was able to identify areas for common action and topics the “EU-Asia Dialogue” could focus on. Besides individual studies on the diplomatic strategies of key countries, the role of non-state actors in the negotiations, the influence of bilateral initiatives as well as the EU`s and ASEAN`s perspective on the international negotiations shall be further examined. The outcome of the workshop was a plan of action for the future work of the project and the draft of policy recommendations in support of the official climate change negotiations.