The Technology Executive Committee (TEC), the policy arm of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC’s) Technology Mechanism, has concluded its inaugural meeting in Germany this weekend.

After the three-day TEC meeting in Bonn, the UNFCCC said that important progress was achieved.

The Technology Mechanism was established at the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 16) in Cancun, Mexico, last year, where UNFCCC member States agreed to a number of structures to kickstart action in response to climate change challenges.

Other structures included a Green Climate Fund, which would disburse $100-billion a year among developing countries by 2020, and the Cancun Adaptation Framework, which would focus on adaptation projects in developing countries.

The Technology Mechanism would look at ways to increase technology cooperation to support action on adaptation and mitigation.

South Africa has stated that its emission reduction targets and climate action plans were dependent on financial and technological assistance from developed nations. While the country stated that it wished to develop more sustainably, it did not want to take on targets that would require backing from the national fiscus and could be detrimental to economic growth.

Deliberations focused on how the TEC would provide overviews of technology needs, assess policy and technical issues related to technology development and transfer, share information on new and innovative technologies, facilitate and catalyse action on technology, and find ways to engage stakeholders to build the momentum on the Technology Mechanism.

"The goal of the Technology Mechanism can only be achieved through a wider and deeper collaboration among all countries with the active engagement of relevant stakeholders including the research community, academia and, importantly, the private sector," UN climate change chief Christiana Figueres said.

The TEC housekeeping system was set up, and Gabriel Blanco from Argentina was elected as chair, and Antonio Pflueger from Germany vice-chair for 2012.

The TEC has the responsibility for laying the groundwork towards fully operationalising the mechanism in 2012. Its overarching goal is to sharpen the focus, step up the pace, and expand the scope of environmentally sound technology development and transfer to developing countries in a highly qualitative way.