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Bonn Climate Change Talks -May, June 2010

Thank you chair for giving us the floor, My name is Hansha. I will be 65 years old in 2050.

Article 6 and the New Delhi Work Programme are among the most promising commitments you have taken under the frame of the UNFCCC. Education, awareness raising and public participation are the three pillars that will enable all of us to develop and put into practice the shared vision we have been speaking about for so long.

18 years have passed since Rio and political leaders are still confronted in their constituencies with skepticism and lack of basic understanding on climate change. This situation contributes to reduce popular support for more ambitious policies.

As article 6 workshops demonstrate, Young people are already potent agents for change. We will keep rising up ourselves, and we invite you to join us on this path.

With Education, Public Awareness and Public Participation as its main three pillars, the review of the New Delhi Work Programme provides a unique chance to build a bridge between actions by governmental and citizens.

We call all governments without delay to:

• Adopt a systematic approach to education on climate change in integrating this issue through all elements and at all level of formal national curricula.
• Parties must recognise the role of NGOs and youth organisations as key providers of non-formal and peer education. And, considering their different capacities, provide financial support to enhance the initiatives of civil society across borders.
• In parallel to education, public awareness raising should be considered a priority and all forms of communication involved in fostering a broader understanding of the social implications of climate change.
• Finally, Public Participation is a key to good governance and to political support for actions at all level of decisions making.

We call you to relish the potential of our generations and enable all stakeholders to address this issue.

Investing in education and young people today is investing in the future. And unlike some of your other investments, we can promise you high returns.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary- Yvo de Boer

The UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún must do what Copenhagen did not achieve

The first round of UN climate change talks since the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 concluded Sunday in Bonn with agreement to intensify the negotiating schedule in order to achieve a strong outcome in Mexico at the end of the year.

In addition to the negotiating sessions already scheduled for 2010, governments decided at the Bonn April meeting to hold two additional sessions of at least one week each.

The additional sessions will take place between the 32nd session of the UNFCCC Convention subsidiary bodies from 31 May to 11 June 2010 and the UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico from 29 November to 10 December 2010.

The Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) invited its Chair to prepare, under her own responsibility, a text to facilitate negotiations among Parties, in time for the May/June sessions in Bonn.

“At this meeting in Bonn, I have generally seen a strong desire to make progress,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer. “However, whilst more meeting time is important, it is itself not a recipe for success,” he cautioned.

The UN’s top climate change official called on governments to overcome differences, and work for greater clarity on what can be decided in the course of 2010 in the UN Climate Change negotiations.

“We need to decide what can be agreed at the end of this year in Cancún and what can be put off until later,” he said.

According to Mr. de Boer, negotiators must tackle three categories of issues in the course of this year: issues which were close to completion in Copenhagen and can be finalized at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún at the end of the year; issues where there are still considerable differences, but on which the Copenhagen Accord can provide important political guidance; and issues where governments are still far from agreement.

“The UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún must do what Copenhagen did not achieve: It must finalize a functioning architecture for implementation that launches global climate action, across the board, especially in developing nations,” said Yvo de Boer.

“Specifically, negotiations this year need to conclude on mitigation targets and action, a package on adaptation, a new technology mechanism, financial arrangements, ways to deal with deforestation, and a capacity-building framework,” he said.

Yvo de Boer also referred to the necessity for high level political guidance at the appropriate time: “We must seek political guidance where and when needed,” he said.

The first round of UN Climate Change Talks in Bonn in 2010 (9-11 April) was attended by more than 1700 delegates from 175 countries