Informal workshop for the heads of delegation on climate change
Wind-turbines
© Europa
- from: 16.07.2008
- to: 18.07.2008
- In: Reims
The day before the next round of United Nations negotiations designed to reach an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, France, which is currently president of the European Union, is organising an informal workshop in Reims from 16 to 18 July which it says is a presidential kick-off workshop on the current status of negotiations.
The workshop is a strategic debate between the negotiators from the European Union Member States. For the record, in UN climate circles, the European Union talks about a single voice, that of the rotating president of the Union, which therefore has an essential place within the formal framework of these multilateral negotiations. The group will be made up of some 100 participants representing the 27 countries of the European Union and representatives of the European Commission.
''The European Union, if it is to affirm its driving role in international negotiations, must set a good example: the EU cannot demand global effort in the fight against climate change if it has not managed to share the effort that needs to be made between the Member States,'' says Jean-Louis Borloo, Minister of State and Minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Land Use Planning. In fact, the climate change programme will not be missing from these debates: it will be adopted under the French presidency before the Copenhagen COP in December 2009.
Delegates will hold informal meet over 2 days to prepare the next deadlines for European and international negotiations under optimal conditions. The most important topics within the current negotiations will be debated in a plenary session and in the form of workshops to make it easier to express ambitious strategies. These could be questions such as how to finance the fight against climate change, the joint target set for the next convention, differentiation between countries according to how developed they are or their contribution to pollution as well as the need for America to participate in the negotiations. Participants, with the help of experts within the French delegation, will identify the objectives which the European Union must achieve before the Copenhagen conference. To do this, lines of agreement which can be clearly negotiated during 2009 will need to be defined during the conference at Accra at the end of August and the conference in Poznan at the end of 2008: the participants in Reims will start with defining these. There will also be debate with the unions, industry and environmental associations to understand their position and expectations concerning the future multilateral regime.
- Updated: 23.09.2008
