WORLD> Africa
Latest round of UN climate change talks open in Accra
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-22 00:00

In Accra, talks on further commitments for Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will continue. The objective of these negotiations is to clarify the tools and rules available to industrialized countries to reach emission reduction targets beyond 2012, when the first phase of the Protocol expires, along with identifying options to enhance their effectiveness and contribution to sustainable development.

This part of the negotiations must be concluded before the group can move on to the issue of determining emission reduction ranges for developed countries at its next meeting in December.

"Parties meeting under the Kyoto Protocol must swiftly reach agreement on the rules and tools that will be available to developed countries to meet future emission reduction targets," UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer was quoted as saying.

"This is essential because the toolbox will in turn determine the level of ambition of developed countries when setting their new targets," he added.

In the context of the negotiation process on strengthened long- term cooperative action against climate change, a workshop will be held in Accra on sectoral approaches and sector-specific actions.

The Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism presently only allows emission reductions from projects to be credited. This and other mechanisms could be expanded to engage important sectors of the economy, for example the steel, cement or power-generating sectors, according to the press release.

A second workshop will deal with policy approaches and positive incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. Emissions from deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Furthermore, for the first time in the negotiations leading up to Copenhagen, there will be a joint discussion on both the finance and technology needed to limit emissions and adapt to climate change.

This will create an interlinked discussion on a number of elements of the Copenhagen agreement.

"Parties will look not only at what is needed in terms of funding, but also at how funding should be generated in the context of a new international deal, and precisely what technologies are required," the UN's top climate change official said.

"The debate will also give an indication of the infrastructure needed to implement a shared vision in the areas of finance, technology and capacity building," de Boer added.

The Accra gathering is the last UN-sponsored global climate change meeting before the UN Climate Change Conference in PoznaƄ, Poland scheduled for December 1 to 12.

A further series of major UNFCCC negotiating sessions are planned for 2009, to culminate in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

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