Third Round of Climate Talks Begin in Bonn

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The third round of UN climate change negotiations this year kicked off on Monday with representatives from 178 governments meeting in Bonn, Germany. The Bonn UN Climate Change Conference (2 to 6 August) is designed to prepare the outcomes of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún in November and December.

The following is a press release from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):

The third round of UN climate change negotiations this year kicked off on Monday with representatives from 178 governments meeting in Bonn, Germany. The Bonn UN Climate Change Conference (2 to 6 August) is designed to prepare the outcomes of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún in November and December.

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"Governments have a responsibility this year to take the next essential step in the battle against climate change," said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. "How governments achieve the next essential step is up to them. But it’s politically possible. In Cancún, the job of governments is to turn the politically possible into the politically irreversible," she said.

The government delegates will discuss the second iteration of the text to facilitate negotiations under the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA). The negotiating group is tasked to deliver a long-term global solution to the climate challenge.

The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) is also meeting in Bonn in parallel to the AWG-LCA. The focus of this group is on emissions reduction commitments for the 37 industrialised countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol for the period beyond 2012.

The UN’s top climate change official Christiana Figueres pointed to the opportunity to capture the promises, pledges and progress that governments have already made, in accountable and binding ways. According to Ms. Figueres, governments now need to resolve what to do with their public pledges to cut emissions. All industrialised countries have made public pledges to cut emissions by 2020 and 38 developing countries have submitted plans to limit their emissions growth.

Article continues: http://www.globalwarmingisreal.com/blog/2010/08/02/third-round-of-climate-talks-begin-in-bonn/