On June 2, 2025, the Pace Energy and Climate Center (PECC) filed a submission with the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in response to a call for inputs on the potential impacts of greenhouse gas reduction measures. The PECC’s submission flows from a program under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement that examines the impacts of greenhouse gas mitigation measures, recognizing that sometimes such measures produce negative effects.
To better understand the impacts of greenhouse gas reduction actions, the parties to the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement (the Parties) created in 2018 the Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures (KCI), to assist them in sharing information, experience, and best practices on the impacts. At COP28 in 2023, the Parties tasked the Secretariat (Decision 13/CP.28) to organize two-day global dialogues in 2024 and 2025 on the impact of greenhouse gas reduction measures, in conjunction with the KCI.
Non-party stakeholders, like the PECC, were invited to submit their views on possible topics for the global dialogues. The PECC’s submission, which was prepared by Joseph Siegel, PECC’s outgoing Interim Executive Director, with the assistance of Brooke Wood, PECC Legal Research Assistant, recommends that the Secretariat include, as a topic in the 2025 global dialogue, the potential for conflict to emerge from greenhouse gas reduction actions.
The submission provides examples of conflict and tensions stemming from greenhouse gas reduction actions, such as community opposition to solar installations, lawsuits against wind projects, and conflicts from mining minerals that are needed for decarbonization technologies. The PECC’s submission also discusses the opportunities for broader use of conflict resolution, conflict prevention, and conflict management strategies, which can be effective in addressing greenhouse gas mitigation-related conflicts and tensions. It then suggests the benefit of using mediators and third-party impartial facilitators to design and implement processes for conflict resolution, prevention, and management. Finally, the PECC makes recommendations to the Secretariat and KCI on designing the two-day dialogue to maximize its effectiveness.