21 August 2008: Over 1600 participants are attending the UN
climate change negotiations that opened in Accra, Ghana, and that are scheduled
to conclude on 27 August 2008.

The Accra Climate Change Talks include the third
session of the Ad hoc Working Group on
Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the first part of the sixth session
of the Ad hoc Working Group on
further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). The
event is the third major UNFCCC gathering this year.
The meeting is part of a
negotiating process that was mandated under the Bali roadmap, which was agreed
in 2007, and which set a deadline of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the
UNFCCC in December 2009, to reach agreement on enhancing cooperation on climate
change including the period after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s first
“commitment period” expires.
Negotiators are to continue substantive work to
enable the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention
through long-term cooperative action, now, up to and beyond 2012, including a
shared vision for long-term cooperative action, mitigation, adaptation,
technology and finance. As for negotiations under the Protocol, delegates will
continue work on analyzing the means that may be available to Annex I Parties
to reach their emission reduction targets and on identifying ways to enhance
their effectiveness and contribute to sustainable development. [IISDRS coverage]