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Informal talks on climate change to take place in New York

Informal talks on climate change to take place in New York

Some 40 ministers and senior government officials will gather this weekend in New York to take stock of the political situation since the suspension of climate change negotiations in The Hague last November, according to the meeting's organizers.

The informal talks at the invitation of Jan Pronk, the Chairman of the international negotiations, the participants will seek on Saturday to advance preparations for the resumed sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change, scheduled for 16 to 27 July in Bonn, according to a statement issued today by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Adopted in 1992, the Framework provides the unifying structure of institutions and processes needed for global cooperation on climate change. Under the UNFCC, the Convention's 187 Parties agree to continue to meet on a regular basis to discuss how to carry out their Convention-related commitments, regardless of the disagreements that may have arisen over the Kyoto Protocol.

Under the Convention, both developed and developing countries are committed to adopting national programmes for mitigating climate change and developing strategies for adapting to its impacts. Additional commitments apply to developed countries only, including taking action to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000 and to provide financial and technological support to developing countries.

The Kyoto Protocol builds on the Convention and constitutes a second step in the global campaign to address climate change. Adopted in 1997, the Protocol has required more than three years of additional negotiations because many of the operational details of its mechanisms still need to be finalized. The Protocol will only enter into force 90 days after it has been ratified by at least 55 Convention Parties, which must include industrialized countries representing at least 55 per cent of this group's total 1990 carbon dioxide emissions. No developed countries has yet ratified the Protocol.