Project Summary

The BASIC Project is an action orientated research and capacity development project focusing on supporting the institutional capacity of key developing countries to undertake analytical work to determine what kind of national and international climate change actions best fit within their circumstances and priorities. BASIC stands for Building and Strengthening Institutional Capacities on Climate Change in Brazil, India, China and South Africa. These four countries were chosen because of their environmental, economic, social and political importance.

To achieve these objectives the Project has created the BASIC network - a multi-national project team linking over 40 individuals from 25 reasearch and policy institutions, the majority based in BASIC countries with coordination provided by the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. The BASIC Project is funded by the Environment Directorate, European Commission and also by contributions from DEFRA, UK. Further details of BASIC partners and research and capacity development activites can be found on this website.

The BASIC Project Final Report

Strengthening the capacity of developing countries to prepare for and participate in negotiations on future actions under the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol
September 2007

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BASIC Project activities have comprised a mix of research papers, policy analysis, briefings, workshops, conferences, mentoring and training clustered around five tasks lead by teams:
Task 1 – Energy, mitigation and sustainable development (China Team)
Task 2 – Adaptation and vulnerability (India Team)
Task 3 – Policy coherence and institutional coordination (South Africa Team)
Task 4 – Designing international climate change policy and negotiations skills (Brazil Team)
Task 5 – Creation of developing country expert group/mechanism on a long term basis

The BASIC Project Publications List

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A list of the final papers written by the country teams of China, India, South Africa and Brazil can be found under Results and documents.

The BASIC Project Overview

Brazil – South Africa – India – China
Building and Strengthening Institutional Capacity on Climate Change

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The underlying premise of BASIC is that international climate policy has tended to be internationally determined and based on top-down approaches that have not examined the social, political and economic feasibility of implementation. BASIC has sought to reverse this dynamic to ensure that future climate policy is informed by countries’ particular circumstances and challenges. The BASIC network unites experts from developed and developing countries engaged in both domestic implementation and international climate policy & negotiations. The Project has contributed both to development and implementation of domestic policy as well as to the formulation and analysis of proposed international agreements around post 2012 frameworks.
An additional rationale for BASIC Project is to provide opportunities for developing country representatives and experts to meet each other to share analysis and experiences are currently extremely limited. The BASIC Project workshops and conferences have provided significant opportunities for a wide variety of national and international participants to meet in an informal setting.