[Duurzaamlijst] (Fwd) Press Release from the Climate Secretariat on resumption

["Boyd Noorda" <boyd@>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 13 Feb 2001 21:32:38 +0100
From:           	Aveen Haller <aveen.haller@unep.ch>
Subject:        	Press Release from the Climate Secretariat on resumption of
 	Climate talks


PRESS RELEASE

Climate change talks to resume

         New York, 12 February 2001  The President of the climate change
talks that were suspended last November in The Hague announced at UN
Headquarters today that the negotiations will resume for two weeks within
the period from mid-June to late July 2001.  The exact dates and the venue
will be decided shortly based on the availability of suitable conference
facilities.

         The decision by Jan Pronk, Environment Minister of The 
Netherlands, was taken after wide-ranging consultations with the Bureau of
the Conference and with governments who wanted sufficient time to prepare
adequately for the conference.  It reflects his conviction that the
membership of the UN Climate Change Convention remain strongly committed to
advancing the Convention's work and to making the 1997 Kyoto Protocol fully
operational.

         "Our immediate challenge is to maintain political engagement and to
safeguard the many substantive advances achieved at The Hague," said Mr.
Pronk.  "I hope that the shock of our inability to reach agreement last
November will spur all governments to further efforts to find the middle
ground of compromise and consensus."

The decision to continue pursuing a political consensus comes shortly after
the release of a major report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change confirming the scientific consensus that the evidence for humanity's
influence on the global climate is now stronger than ever before.  A
companion report detailing how global warming will impact humanity and the
natural environment in the different regions of the world will be released
by the IPCC next Monday in Geneva.

"As the scientific understanding of the risks we are creating for the 
coming decades becomes increasingly solid, the urgency of controlling 
greenhouse emissions becomes ever more real," said Michael Zammit Cutajar,
the Convention's Executive Secretary.

"With the Kyoto Protocol's initial emissions targets set to kick in by 2008,
it is time for political leaders to respond to the warnings of the
scientists by putting into place policies that will lead to early and
cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Key issues that must still be resolved at the resumed talks include a 
package of financial support and technology transfer to help developing
countries contribute to global action on climate change, including measures
for adapting to climate change impacts; the establishment of an
international emissions trading system and a "clean development mechanism";
the rules for counting emissions reductions from carbon "sinks" such as
forests; and a compliance regime.



Note to journalists: For more information, see www.unfccc.int or contact
Michael Williams at +41-22-917-8242 or michael.williams@unep.ch

----------------------
Aveen Haller, Information Unit for Conventions/UNEP
Tel:+41-22-9178244/9178196
Fax:+41-22-7973464
Email: aveen.haller@unep.ch
Website:  www.unep.ch/conventions
------- End of forwarded message -------

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