At the heart of the ecbi is an Oxford-based Fellowship Programme for climate negotiators and other stakeholders directly involved in the UNFCCC process from the participating developing countries. Its primary purpose is to build trust and exchange procedural and institutional knowledge both among the Fellows ('South-South trust-building'), and between them and their European colleagues ('North-South trust-building').

South-South relations and trust building are often of at least equal importance in supporting the international negotiations. The trust building activities are carried out during the Fellowship Colloquium in Oxford, where the Fellows have the chance to exchange views and experiences among themselves in 'closed session'. In light of their considerable existing negotiating capacities, the participating large developing countries are primarily involved in the trust-building activities of the Oxford Fellowship Programme.

The Seminars provide an opportunity to exchange views in an informal and non-confrontational setting. They also enable the European partners to discover and better understand the situation of their developing country colleagues - one of the reasons why the ecbi is not just a capacity-building initiative by Europeans, but also for the benefit of Europeans. The Seminar is an annual, three-day event hosted in the academic setting of Oxford University and usually takes place in the first week of September. Participation is by invitation only.

To maintain the momentum of these trust-building activities, the Fellowship Programme also organizes an annual one-day Bonn Seminar during the intersessional Subsidiary Bodies meetings in Bonn/Germany. European ecbi Partners have the opportunity to engage with senior developing country delegates particularly from Least Developing Countries (LDCs) - some of whom are past ecbi Fellows.

Recent Fellowships News

The Eighth ecbi Bonn Seminar The 2013 Bonn Seminar took place on 9 June 2013 at the Altes Rathaus, Bonn Germany. Over 35 participants from developing and european countries attended, to discuss the work of the Standing Committee on Finance, the Ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform and loss and damage.

ecbi Finance Circle Meets in Berlin On March 11th, the Finance Circle met in Berlin attended by the two SCF Co-chairs (Antigua & Barbuda, and Switzerland), four SCF members (Australia, Belgium, Norway, and US), a GCFB alternate member (US), and representatives of five GCFB members/alternates (Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, and Norway). For a brief summary of the meeting, please refer to the report below.

The Oxford Approach:Operationalising ëRespective Capabilitiesí This ecbi Policy Brief by Benito M¸ller & Lavan Mahadeva serves as summary for policy makers of a technical report by the same authors published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, available at the link below. Whether or not the regime emerging from the current negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be based on an explicit cost/burden sharing formula, the debate about (implied) costs/burdens will be central. Such a debate cannot be genuinely meaningful in the absence of an acceptable operationalisation of Article 3.1 in general, and of the concept of ërespective capabilityí in particular. The Brief proposes a measure for national ëdifferentiated economic capabilities (ëability to payí) as integral part of an operationalisation. The primary purpose of the measure is to define or assess climate change cost/burden sharing (schemes). To illustrate the potential use of this methodology the Brief considers two examples: assessing the fairness of a given cost distribution; and developing a (rule-based) ëgraduation schemeí regarding obligations to pay.

ecbi Finance Circle meets in Doha A meeting of the Finance Circle took place on December 4, 2012, during the second week of COP 18 at Doha. The meeting was shortened to accommodate participantsí schedule commitments in the negotiations. Discussions focused on how the FC could continue to serve as a useful platform for the negotiators, particularly at this stage when the negotiations on finance have increased in complexity, crucial importance and presence throughout several bodies of the UNFCCC.

LDC/ecbi Finance Circle Reception for Green Climate Fund Board On 22 August 2012, the Green Climate Fund Board formally held its constitutive meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Following a tradition established by the ecbi in the context of the Adaptation Fund Board and the Transitional Committee, the ecbi Finance Circle organized a reception for the GCF Board on 24 August, which was co-hosted by Mr David Kaluba, LDC member of the GCFB. After a short welcome by Mr Kaluba, Benito M¸ller (ecbi director, and adviser to the LDC member) gave a presentation on ìThe importance of involving stakeholders in the GCFî.

ecbi Fellowship and Oxford Seminar 2012 The eight annual round of the ecbi Oxford Fellowships and Seminar took place from 8-14 July 2012, and was attended by 12 Fellows from developing countries (LDC, AOSIS, ALBA, Africa, BASIC) and 14 Seminar participants from Europe and the European Commission. The discussion focused on the implementation of the Bali Road Map; the post-2020 regime under the Durban Platform on Enhanced Action, in particular on CBDR and RC; long-term finance, in particular the use of innovative sources of finance; and support for adaptation pre-2020, in particular NAPAs and NAPs. ï Feedback from the Seminars