**CCAP PRESS RELEASE**
 
 
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  
January 29, 2008                                                                               

Contacts:       Jessica Gillman 202-350-8582 
Lawrence Pacheco 202-715-1555
 

 
Washington, D.C. – The upcoming U.S. Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change in Hawaii is expected to feature discussions of sector-based approaches to the post-2012 international response to climate change.  Ned Helme, president of the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP), who has been working with delegates from developed and developing countries to create a credible, widely accepted sector-based proposal, said such an approach could be an important building block for implementing the roadmap adopted at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Bali last December.
 
“The sector-based approach means different things to different people.  We believe a carefully-designed sector-based approach is the most politically promising option to move the ball forward this year when action on climate change is urgently needed,” said Helme, who will be in Hawaii.
 
CCAP has developed a sector-based approach through its Future Actions Dialogue, which brings together senior climate negotiators from 30 developed and developing countries to create practical future climate policy options.  This approach, which has broad appeal, would build upon the unilateral actions developing countries currently have underway to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  It would encourage developing countries to consider global best practices in deciding where to set more aggressive emission reduction targets in key high GHG emitting sectors, such as cement, steel, power and oil refining.  The approach would offer technology and financial assistance to developing countries to encourage them to set those more stringent emission reduction goals.  Developing countries that surpass their targets could sell those reductions in the carbon market.

To be credible, a sector-based approach must include the following critical features:

• Developed countries would commit to deliver financial and technological incentives to developing countries to encourage them to meet more aggressive reduction targets.
• Developing countries would elect to go further to reduce the carbon intensity of production in key sectors in return for such incentives.
• Developed countries would commit to mandatory reduction targets in key sectors and nationally, which would reflect a comparable level of efforts among developed countries.
• The aggregate emission reductions from all countries would keep the world on the path suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to avoid harmful climate impacts.

 
"A carefully-designed sector-based approach provides a win-win opportunity for climate policy," Helme said.  "It offers developing countries needed incentives for taking further action to reduce GHG emissions in key industries, while addressing developed country concerns about international competitiveness.  These features are critical to bridging the gap between countries shaping the post-2012 climate agreement and making real progress toward long-term climate protection goals."
 
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Since 1985, CCAP has been a recognized world leader in climate and air quality policy and is the only independent, non profit think-tank working exclusively on those issues at the local, national and international levels. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., CCAP helps policymakers around the world to develop, promote and implement innovative, market-based solutions to major climate, air quality and energy problems that balance both environmental and economic interests.  For more information about CCAP, please visit www.ccap.org.