14 November 2006 – Progress has been made on a number of issues at a United Nations conference in Nairobi aimed at forging responses to global warming, including efforts to promote projects in developing countries that will help people adapt to threats posed by the phenomenon, the head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said today.

Agreement was reached today on an Adaptation Fund for these projects, according to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, and agreement is likely on a five-year workplan on adaptation. Countries have also reached an agreement to promote technology transfer to developing countries.

“The Adaptation Fund is crucial to developing countries,” Mr. de Boer said, “because it allows them to really begin working on activities to adapt to climate change. This is a very encouraging step forward, especially for developing countries.”

The Adaptation Fund, Mr. de Boer said, will receive a share of the proceeds from the Clean Development Mechanism as well as voluntary contributions. “The number of projects that are launched under the Clean Development Mechanism will determine how much is going into the Fund.”

The Clean Development Mechanism allows industrialized countries that are members of the Kyoto Protocol to invest in sustainable development projects in developing countries.

Mr. de Boer said there were still a number of unresolved issues at the conference that will be left for the ministers that will be attending the high-level part of the meeting that starts tomorrow.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, President of the Swiss Confederation Moritz Leuenberger and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will address the more than 100 ministers who are expected to attend.

One issue that remains unresolved concerns commitments by industrialized countries for the period after the 2012 expiration of the Kyoto Protocol, which contains binding targets for emissions. While an agreement on the issue is not expected at the Nairobi conference, countries will need to resolve a plan on how they will address the matter so that there is no gap between Kyoto and the commitment period.

Mr. de Boer has said that from the Kyoto experience, in takes two years to negotiate a pact and two years for ratification, so that talks on a new set of commitments should begin in 2007 or 2008 at the latest.

Source: UN News Service

Return to:  Environmental News Page