Next Round of UN Climate Change Negotiations Set to Kick Off in Accra

The next round of United Nations climate change negotiations is set to begin in Accra, Ghana, from 21 to 27 August 2008.

The Accra Climate Change Talks will take forward work on a strengthened and effective international climate change deal under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as work on emission reduction rules and tools under the Kyoto Protocol.

Over a thousand participants including government representatives, participants from business and industry, environmental organizations and research institutions are expected to attend the Accra gathering, which is part of the UN negotiating process that was launched that will be concluded in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.

The process of global climate change negotiations will culminate in 2008 in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Pozna„, Poland, in December.

"At the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in 2007, the international community embarked on a two-year negotiating process which is both critically important and under severe time pressure," said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer.

"We are now 8 months into these negotiations, and while progress has been made, there is no doubt that we need to move forward quickly," he added.

The crucial Accra talks comprise the third session of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 3) and the first part of the sixth session of the Ad hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 6, part I).

Within the context of negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol, work is scheduled to be concluded on analysing the means available to developed countries to reach their emission reduction targets.

In the context of the negotiation process on strengthened international action against climate change, workshops will be held on policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. A second workshop will deal with on cooperative sectoral approaches and sector-specific actions.

The venue for the sessions is the Accra International Conference Center.
The UNFCCC will give an opening press conference on Thursday, 21 August and a closing press conference at the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday,
27 August.

Parties and observer organisations will also give press briefings throughout the meeting. Media must have prior accreditation in order to attend UNFCCC and other briefings. The majority of the meetings and side events will be open to the media and will be webcast.

All media on location are invited to attend a separate, three-day journalists' workshop organized by the UNFCCC secretariat 24 to 27 August, subject to availability of space.

The workshop will involve a full programme covering such topics as the latest climate change science, new technologies to adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change to how to bring more emission reduction projects to Africa.

Provisional agendas for the meetings:
<http://unfccc.int/meetings/intersessional/accra/items/4437.php>

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

Further information for the press, including information on accreditation, provisional overview of press briefings and the provisional schedule of the media workshop, is available at:
<http://unfccc.int/meetings/sb28/press/items/4348.php>

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 182 member Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialised 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.

(Bonn, 11 August 2008) -