Interview: Developing countries working together on climate change

Despite having their own challenges, developing countries have shown they are willing to work together to address climate change, said a UN South-South cooperation expert.

"Clearly demonstrated commitment by developing countries to work with each other on climate change sends a very strong positive signal to the world: developing countries -- even though facing their own challenges -- are ready and wiling to make our best efforts to this global community," said Xiaojun Grace Wang, the UN Development Program's lead advisor on South-South cooperation, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Cooperation between developing countries, known as South-South cooperation, can play a vital role in addressing climate change issues and implementing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said Wang. The SDGs are a set of 17 economic, social and environmental goals UN member states hope to achieve by 2030.

South-South cooperation can take many forms, said Wang. For example, China has made impressive pledges recently to finance climate change actions. South-South cooperation also goes beyond countries like China, South Africa, India and Brazil helping smaller countries, she said.

Cuba, for example, has shared its knowledge about disaster risk management with other Caribbean countries, including the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

"I think the most important thing for South-South cooperation is that it can offer more relevant and more cost-effective solutions that can be shared and adapted to similar development contexts," said Wang, a Chinese national based at the UNDP headquarters in New York.

Addressing climate change can be challenging, particularly for developing countries affected by conflict, Wang said that even these countries are finding ways to work together to protect the environment.

For example, she said, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda have formed a neighborhood mechanism to coordinate and manage water supplies while also ensuring water resources can be used to generate electricity.

South-South cooperation can also be extended to include partners from the developed world, in what is known as triangular cooperation. In Ghana and Zambia, the UNDP is working with China and Denmark to share renewable energy technology with communities.

South-South cooperation goes beyond sharing knowledge and resources, and has seen developing countries working together to address climate change at the global level, such as during the current UN conference on climate change in Paris, France, according to Wang.

"One important outcome of South-South cooperation is (the) collective voice of developing countries -- for example, we know the least developed countries, land-locked developing countries, small island developing states, they come together to define and articulate their special needs in development," said Wang.

This type of cooperation is essential because the poorest countries, will experience the biggest impact of climate change. "We know that poor people bear the biggest impact especially the negative impact of climate change," she insisted. Endit