The 18th UN conference on Climate Change “(COP18 / CMP8”) has entered its second week amid hopes and demands that the conference will come out with a realistic and balanced agreement acceptable and satisfactory for all participants despite the difficult negotiations and thorny issues raised on the agenda of the conference .
Because the problems of climate change have become a priority issue worldwide, the delegates during the first week of the conference had discussed among other topics means to implement the commitments agreed upon at previous conferences, including the financing of the Green Fund, which was initiated at the Copenhagen conference in 2009, with a hundred billion dollars a year until 2020 to be allocated for helping developing and poor countries in coping with the problem of climate change and it’s the negative and damaging impact as well as the financing of clean development mechanisms in these countries to meet the challenges of greenhouse gas emissions.
The financing topic is expected to be at the center of discussions in the second week of the conference. To assess achievements made by the seven different negotiating groups for the conference in its first week, H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, the President of the Conference held an open session for groups and representatives of the countries participating in this major global environmental event.
Al Attiyah was briefed by the groups and heads of participating delegations on their views on the progress made in the ongoing negotiations in Doha about the climate change issues and the second commitment phase of the Kyoto Protocol.
Al Attiyah said on the sidelines of the conference that he had called on the participants and the heads of the groups in the meeting to expedite the negotiations without delay to the last minute and to coordinate with the heads of the related committees in this regard.
“We should work in a spirit of solidarity and focus energies in order to reach realistic and creative solutions, he added, noting that it is time to have the courage to have new thinking in order to reach results and to address the risks that result from climate change.”
For their parts, the heads of the groups presented their reports on what has been made in the terms of reference of the various committees and functions and stressed the need to work closely among all parties to identify synergies and commonalities between them with a view to reaching realistic, ambitious and balanced agreement.
Some speakers also called for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to include more of the commitments by the parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and finding solutions to the problems of funding and support and meet the Green Fund and the agreement on the goal of “mid-financing.” Some heads of the groups expressed satisfaction over to achieving tangible results, and called for more flexibility and work to resolve crises of climate change and take clear decisions that respond to the aspirations in this area. They said the road is still difficult and long and efforts should be intensified in order to achieve the desired goal.
QNA
3 December
