Climate Change Task Force Meeting, Manchester 2009

The risks to climate change resulting from the increase in atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases have been well documented. There are likely to be especially adverse effects on developing countries, and especially the poor within these countries.

Global warming is a global problem, and a solution requires rapid and radical action by all countries. But if the developing countries are to make the contributions that they must make if the problem is to be brought under control, there must be equitable burden sharing—although conceptions of what is fair and equitable differ. The Initiative for Policy Dialogue's (IPD) Climate Change Task Force meeting convened climate scholars and advocates from all over the world to discuss negotiations in North-South burden-sharing on climate change mitigation.

There is already global agreement that the international community must respond to climate change in ways that do not adversely affect growth and poverty alleviation within the developing world. This would even be so if it were not the case that the developed countries had a historical responsibility for the increases in greenhouse gases, or bear especial culpability for their failures to live up to prior commitments. This means both that the incremental costs of mitigation must be borne by the developed countries, and that the developed countries help the developing countries bear the costs of adaptation.