News | Climate Change

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9E5LIK00&show_article=1

Climate negotiators from about 30 countries and international organizations began exploring ways in a two-day informal meeting from Monday in Tokyo to advance talks to craft a new global framework to combat climate change beyond 2012.

Working-level participants of the Informal Meeting on Further Actions against Climate Change, co-chaired by Japan and Brazil, are expected to frankly exchange views on how to build on the Copenhagen Accord, which came out of the last U.N. climate talks, and proceed toward the next round of the U.N. conference to be held in Mexico later this year.
In his opening remarks, Japanese Ambassador for Global Environmental Affairs Akihiko Furuya said that although he recognizes there are "mixed feelings" about the outcomes of the Copenhagen talks, negotiators "should not underestimate what we achieved last year."
"The Copenhagen Accord provides a valuable stepping stone toward the ultimate goal of agreeing on a comprehensive legal document. Based on last year's achievements, we should continue to move forward with renewed resolve," he said.
The climate talks in the Danish capital last December failed to adopt the Copenhagen Accord, which was brokered by 26 key economies, and merely recognized the nonbinding political agreement due to opposition from some countries that complained about the closed-door drafting process.
Furuya said countries "really have to be serious about improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the negotiation and decision-making process" and consider how they "can operationalize those related paragraphs in the Copenhagen Accord."
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told participants later in the day that he believes the Copenhagen Accord should serve as a basis for a "fair, effective and comprehensive legal framework" and that negotiations should be conducted "in an inclusive and transparent process."
So far, more than 100 countries have expressed their association with the accord and the countries endorsing the pact are responsible for more than 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions altogether.
The accord calls on developed countries to set their respective greenhouse gas emissions cut targets for 2020 and developing countries to take action to mitigate climate change.
Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, director general of the Brazilian External Relations Ministry's Environment and Special Affairs Department, said that countries should address "how best to incorporate the needs, requests and complaints of those who felt they were not heard in Copenhagen."
The Brazilian envoy, who co-chairs the Tokyo meeting with Furuya, also stressed the need to recover confidence that was lost in the Copenhagen meeting to achieve success in the Mexico conference.
Global climate change talks are aimed at establishing a framework that will succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming, as the first emissions-reduction commitment period under the protocol will end in 2012.
Since the Kyoto pact does not cover mandatory emissions reductions by China and the United States, the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, Furuya reiterated Tokyo's position that the "simple amendment of the Kyoto Protocol is definitely not sufficient as the post-2012 framework."
The participants of the informal meeting include officials from the United States, China, India, Mexico and South Africa as well as the European Union and the United Nations.
Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, who already announced he will step down July 1, also took part in the Tokyo meeting.