Climate change, as defined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is a change or climate attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparnble time periods.

SGP prcjects will contribute to removing the cultural, institutional, technical, and economic barriers and promote dissemination of accessible, sustainable, climate-friendly technologies and measures throughout a locality or region. They will primarily involve building local capacity; raising public awareness of climate change and energy conservation and efficiency issues; and demonstrating and disseminating appropriate technologies and measures.

The projects may also aim to reduce the cost or suitable technologies for communities by supporting local applied and participatory research and development. The projccts will contribute to the overall GEF climate change priorities of a country. SGP has produced two publications that analyze projects themes, experiences, and outcomes from the climate change portfolio which can be found in the SGP website (http://sgp.undp.org):

• Responding to climate change, generating community (1992-2003), [pdf ]

• Community Action to Address Climate Change (50 case studies), [pdf ]

• OP11 - Promoting Environmentally Sustainable Transport

• OP5 - Removal of Barriers to Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation

• OP6 - Promoting the Adoption of Renewable Energy by Removing Barriers and Reducing Implementation Costs