The theme of this year’s Asia LEDS Partnership Forum is ‘Advancing NDCs and strengthening long term strategies’ and registration is open now for the event that runs virtually from 23 August through 9 September 2021.

Register today for the Asia LEDS Partnership Forum

The Asia Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) Partnership (ALP) Forum 2021 serves as the premier gathering of policymakers, donors, practitioners and other experts involved in enabling low-emission, climate-resilient development in Asia, and explores synergies and collaboration opportunities to advance climate change goals. Further, the forum supports peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing, explores collaboration opportunities and identifies the priority needs of the member countries.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change established the long-term goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius) to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Climate scientists have estimated that to achieve this goal, global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 45% by 2030 and reach net-zero soon after 2050. Thus, the ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement requires that countries think bigger and long-term than what the five-year nationally determined contribution (NDC) cycles might imply. To do so, countries may need to step back from individual NDCs and envision where they want to be in terms of climate-resilient and sustainable development in the long run. This requires a profound shift in the development paradigms, which will call for new and innovative approaches to achieve net zero emissions and carbon/climate neutrality.

Countries in Asia-Pacific have embarked on ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the long-term low-emission development path to achieve the climate change goals. The ALP forum 2021 will showcase thought leadership, innovative approaches, good practices, challenges and the lessons learnt from key Asia-Pacific countries, to enable knowledge and experience sharing and to scale up and replicate widely.

The Asia LEDS Forum 2021 will:

• Provide examples of innovative cutting-edge solutions that have helped countries to raise their NDC ambitions and view a shift in the way of doing business;
• Provide a platform for countries to share their learning and experience in formulating their ambitious policies and plans, and their assessment of the benefits of these transformative actions;
• Enable knowledge sharing of tools and methodologies and in-depth trainings on instruments to advance implementation and raise NDC and LEDS ambitions.

The ALP Forum aims to achieve these objectives through 14 sessions organised on various themes such as energy, transport, sub-national integration, transparency, long-term low emission development strategies and climate finance.

Asia LEDS Partnership Forum 2021: programme of events

Inaugural & Plenary 1: Ambitious Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) and transformational vision

Monday, 23 Aug 2021 | 16:30 – 18:30 (IST) 18:00 – 20:00 (Bangkok) 20:00 – 22:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

Plenary 2: Raising NDC ambition with long-term transformational visions

Tuesday, 24 Aug 2021 | 13:00 – 14:30 (IST) 14:30 – 16:00 (Bangkok) 16:30 – 18:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

A1: Energy - Global power sector transformation and the role of system operators in clean energy transitions

Wednesday, 25 Aug 2021 | 09:30 – 11:00 (IST) 11:00 – 12:30 (Bangkok) 13:00 – 14:30 (S. Korea, Japan)

A2: Energy - Distributed energy resources to support energy transition

Wednesday, 25 Aug 2021 | 13:00 – 14:30 (IST) 14:30 – 16:00 (Bangkok) 16:30 – 18:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

A3: Sub-national integration - National governments‘ initiatives to support subnational climate actions

Thursday, 26 Aug 2021 | 09:30 – 11:00 (IST) 11:00 – 12:30 (Bangkok) 13:00 – 14:30 (S. Korea, Japan)

A4: Sub-national integration - Fund mobilisation for sub-national climate actions

Thursday, 26 Aug 2021 | 13:00 – 14:30 (IST) 14:30 – 16:00 (Bangkok) 16:30 – 18:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

B1: LT LEDS - Long-term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) and green recovery

Tuesday, 31 Aug 2021 | 09:30 – 11:00 (IST) 11:00 – 12:30 (Bangkok) 13:00 – 14:30 (S. Korea, Japan)

B2: LT LEDS - Aligning NDCs and Long-term Strategies (LTS)

Tuesday, 31 Aug 2021 | 13:00 – 14:30 (IST) 14:30 – 16:00 (Bangkok) 16:30 – 18:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

B3: Transport - Impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic on transport: strategies for recovery

Thursday, 2 Sep 2021 | 09:30 – 11:00 (IST) 11:00 – 12:30 (Bangkok) 13:00 – 14:30 (S. Korea, Japan)

B4: Transport - Enabling environment for electric mobility in public transport

Thursday, 2 Sep 2021 | 13:00 – 14:30 (IST) 14:30 – 16:00 (Bangkok) 16:30 – 18:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

C1: Finance - Accelerating investments to support NDC implementation and low emission development

Tuesday, 7 Sep 2021 | 09:30 – 11:00 (IST) 11:00 – 12:30 (Bangkok) 13:00 – 14:30 (S. Korea, Japan)

C2: Finance - Global carbon market instruments for achieving climate goals

Tuesday, 7 Sep 2021 | 13:00 – 14:30 (IST) 14:30 – 16:00 (Bangkok) 16:30 – 18:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

C3: Transparency - The enhanced transparency framework: guidance for implementation

Wednesday, 8 Sep 2021 | 09:30 – 11:00 (IST) 11:00 – 12:30 (Bangkok) 13:00 – 14:30 (S. Korea, Japan)

C4: Transparency - Institutional arrangements for robust transparency systems

Wednesday, 8 Sep 2021 | 13:00 – 14:30 (IST) 14:30 – 16:00 (Bangkok) 16:30 – 18:00 (S. Korea, Japan)

Closure

Thursday, 9 Sep 2021 | 09:30 – 11:00 (IST) 11:00 – 12:30 (Bangkok) 13:00 – 14:30 (S. Korea, Japan)

Register today for the Asia LEDS Partnership Forum

Image credits: upper right - ADB; above - World Bank