China Hosts Round Of Climate Change Negotiations

Fourth Round Of UN Climate Change Negotiations In 2010 Set To Kick Off In Tianjin, China

(Bonn, 28 September 2010) – The fourth round of UN climate change negotiations this year is set to kick off on Monday, 4 October in Tianjin, China. The Tianjin UN Climate Change Conference (4 to 9 October) is designed to prepare the outcomes of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún in November and December.

Government delegates will discuss negotiating text under the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA). This negotiating group, comprising all 194 Parties to the UNFCCC, is tasked to deliver a long-term global solution to the climate challenge.

The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) will be meeting in Tianjin in parallel to the AWG-LCA. The focus of this group is on emissions reduction commitments for the 37 industrialised countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol for the period beyond 2012.

“During the course of negotiations this year, governments have been converging on the need to establish a full set of ways and means to launch a new wave of global climate action,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. “In Tianjin, governments will need to cut down the number of options they have on the table, indentify what is achievable in Cancún and muster the political compromises that are needed for concrete outcomes,” she added.

The UNFCCC sessions will take place at the Tianjin Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center (MJCEC) and are expected to be attended by around two and half thousand participants from more than 160 countries, including government delegates, representatives from business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions.

The opening UNFCCC press conference of the Tianjin UN Climate Change Talks will take place on Monday, 4 October at 13:15 local time, following the morning plenary. The UNFCCC closing press conference is scheduled for Saturday, 9 October at 13:15 local time. Whilst the informal UNFCCC negotiating sessions are closed to the media, the opening and closing plenary meetings will be open to the press.

An overview of briefings scheduled so far at the Tianjin UN Climate Change Talks can be found at: " target="_blank"> The overview will be updated in the course of the meeting.

For an overview of side-events and exhibits, see http://regserver.unfccc.int/seors/reports/events_list.html?session_id=AWG14-12

About the UNFCCC With 194 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 been ratified by 191 of the UNFCCC 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.

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