Negotiators gather in Bonn for climate talks
More than 4,000 participants have gathered in Bonn today to begin a second round of United Nations Climate Change talks (PDF).
Among those attending the discussions, which run through 12 June, are government delegates, representatives from business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions.
Negotiators from 182 countries plan to discuss, for the first time, key negotiating texts to serve as the basis for an ambitious and effective international climate change deal to be presented in Copenhagen this December. The Copenhagen pact would be the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012.
Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), said he was confident the world was on track toward negotiating a solid deal in Copenhagen this year.
“The political moment is right to reach an agreement,” de Boer said. “There is no doubt in my mind that the Copenhagen climate conference in December is going to lead to a result. If the world has learned anything from the financial crisis, it is that global issues require a global response.”
Other issues set to come to the table in Bonn include how to improve emissions trading, coverage of emissions credits, the Kyoto Protocols so-called project-based mechanisms and options for the treatment of land-use, land-use change and forestry.
“It is important that we complete some of the more solvable issues here in Bonn so that we can then focus on the more difficult ones later on in the negotiations,” said John Ashe, the newly-elected chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further commitments for Annex I Countries under the Kyoto Protocol.
