UN Climate Change Negotiating Sessions

Major UN Climate Change Negotiating Sessions in 2009

(Bonn, 29 March 2009) – The first in a series of major UN negotiating sessions this year, designed to culminate in an ambitious and effective international climate change deal in Copenhagen in December, got underway Sunday in Bonn, Germany.

The Bonn talks, which will run to 8 April 2009, are being attended by more than 2,000 participants, including government delegates, representatives from business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions.

“This first negotiating session this year is critical for moving the world closer to a political solution to climate change,” said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “The clock is ticking down and countries still have much work to cover,” he added.

The UN Climate Change Talks Bonn, 2009 comprise the 5th session of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 5) and the 7th session of the Ad hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 7).

Discussions under the Kyoto Protocol on emissions reductions to be achieved by industrialised countries after 2012 will center on issues such as the scale of the reductions, improvements to emissions trading and the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon offset mechanisms and on options for the treatment of and use, land-use change and forestry.

“Industrialised countries are committed to lead the way, and the world is looking to them to agree on ambitious targets, in line with what science is telling us, in Copenhagen in December,” said Harald Dovland, Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol. “We must lay the groundwork for this in Bonn at this session by shifting gears and moving into serious, in-depth negotiations,” he added.

Parties meeting under the Convention in Bonn will discuss the key remaining issues based on a document prepared by the Chair that describes areas of convergence in the ideas and proposals from Parties, explores options for dealing with areas of divergence, and identifies any gaps that need to be filled in reaching an effective and ambitious climate change deal in Copenhagen in December.

“Delegates will explore further issues where we already have a solid foundation for agreement, but also where elaboration is still lacking for an ambitious and fair agreed outcome in Copenhagen,” said Michael Zammit Cutajar, Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention. “This is important in order to be able to prepare a negotiating text, which will be tabled at the next Bonn session in June,” he added.

The sessions will take place from Sunday, 29 March to Wednesday, 8 April 2009 at the Hotel Maritim in Bonn.

A provisional overview of the press briefings is available at: http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/intersessional/bonn_09/press_bonn/application/pdf/press_conferences_bonn.pdf

Media must have prior accreditation in order to attend UNFCCC and other briefings.

Information about the meetings: http://unfccc.int/meetings/intersessional/bonn_09/items/4753.php

Overview of side-events: http://regserver.unfccc.int/seors/reports/events_list.html

Further information for the press is available at: http://unfccc.int/meetings/intersessional/bonn_09/press_bonn/items/4744.php

About the UNFCCC

With 192 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has to date 184 member Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.

ENDS

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