Media article

Methods for Quantifying the Benefits of Sustainable Development Policies and Measures (SD-PAMs)

“Sustainable development policies and measures (SD-PAMs) are an approach to stimulating action on climate change mitigation in developing countries. Instead of starting from explicit climate targets,
the approach deliberately sets out to start from development objectives. This strategic approach taps into the primary motivation for developing countries, namely development. Previous work has focused on SD-PAMs as a strategic approach and case studies to illustrate its viability. This article briefly revisits the concept of SD-PAMs, its basis in the Convention (Section 2), and analyses the type of commitment (Section 3). Section 4 outlines four methods that are available to specify the implications of SD-PAMs, ranging from bottom-up case studies, through national modelling, to international models. Broader questions of policy design are addressed in Section 5, which asks
how SD-PAMs could be formalized within the UNFCCC system.”